1857-011: Adms. of William Kelley vs. James W. Kelley, etc. and Exrs. of James Kelley vs James W. Kelley, etc.

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The plaintiffs in this consolidated suit wanted the court's assistance to divide the vast real and personal property of the deceased brothers James and William Kelley. Both were also partners in a mercantile business located in Kilmarnock. They left a vast inheritance to the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary and Protestant Episcopal High School near Alexandria, Virginia and to the Protestant Episcopal Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. The brothers jointly and separately enslaved people to work on their plantations, Richland and Lynums. The brothers, in their wills, emanipated all the people they had enslaved and left them funds, on the condition the newly freed people use the money for their transportation to Liberia. Jerry and Armistead, two of the enslaved men, chose to be re-enslaved rather than move to Liberia.

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