William C. Seaman, Part IV

William Christopher Seaman, my GGG grandfather, was born in the Township of Granville, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada.  The Province of Nova Scotia is located on the east coast of Canada and Granville is located in the southwestern part of Nova Scotia.

William is the son of William Seaman 07-Aug-1764 to 14-Dec-1835 and Elizabeth Brewerton Benson 11-Jan-1771 to 13-Aug-1840. William’s material grandfather was Christopher Benson, which could be the source of his middle name. William had an older brother also named William Christopher Seaman who was born in 1792 and died in 1793.[1]

There are many online sources that show William’s birth date to be 16-Jun-1796, which is possible; however none of these cite the source of this date.    What we can find evidence of is William being baptized 09-Aug-1796, Middle District, Granville, Nova Scotia, Canada.[2]

By 1800 William and his family had moved to New York City, New York.   Little is known about William growing in New York City and by 1818 William was residing in Jackson County, Mississippi.

 William died in 1844 and is buried in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Map of Nova Scotia, Canada

[1] Burgess, Ross, and Ruth Burgess. Granville Township Book. Middleton, NS: Annapolis Valley MacDonald Museum, 2000. Print.

[2] Morse, William I. Gravestones of Acadie: And Other Essays on Local History, Genealogy and Parish Records of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. London: Printed by A. Smith & Co, 1929. Print.

William C. Seaman, Part III, Estate Appraisal

William Christopher Seaman died intestate or simply put, not having a will.

There is an extensive file concerning W.C. Seaman’s estate located in the Chancery Court records of Harrison County, Mississippi.  The file covers a period of two years after William’s death and a lot of interesting information can be gleaned from these records.

One of the first documents required by the court was an appraisal of the “goods, chattels and personal estate of William C. Seaman”.[1]  An appraisal of the estate was presented to the court on 19-March-1845.  The appraisal included an inventory and a list of people owing money to William.  These assets totaled $192.87, which is about $6,000 in today’s money.  Sadly, this was not enough money to cover William's debts.  Other court records document the sale of his real property to settle his debts.

Listed below is a partial list of the items appraised.

Two looking glasses, $2.00.

Three bedsteads, $6.00.

Two feather beds, $3.00.

Two tables, $1.50.

One writing desk, $3.00.

One dozen chairs, $4.00.

One lot of books, $2.00.

Two wheelbarrows $.75,

On cow, $5.00.

On pair of millstones, $1.50.

One pirogue, $.50

One skiff, $1.00.

A scan of the appraisal can be found below.

 

Estate Appraisal of W.C. Seaman page 1.

Estate Appraisal of W.C. Seaman page 2.

 

Every effort is made to cite my sources and give credit to others that have supplied information or photos for this blog.  If you use photos or information from this blog, including use in your Ancestry.com family tree, please consider giving credit to those which have furnished the information or citing the source for the material. Most of the credits or citations can be found in the photo captions or in the footnotes section.

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[1] Estate of William C. Seaman Appraisal, filed 26-May-1845.  Harrison County, Mississippi Chancery Court Records.