Master and the Reaper, 1795 (pages 155-162)
(page 156, pars. 2-5) Ezekiel Forman – His Will, dated May 7, 1795. Records of the Spanish Administration, Chancery archive, Natchez: Adams County Court House. I worked with the original Spanish territorial manuscript folios at the Adams County courthouse. Unfortunately, several volumes of original materials have gone missing since they were microfilmed in 1954 by the Colonial Dames of America, Mississippi Chapter XV. The microfilms archived at MDAH in Jackson, MS constitute the most complete collection of ms documents of the Spanish Territorial administration in the Natchez District to be found anywhere. Ezekiel Forman’s Will on microfilm at MDAH, Reel 17798, Vol. 98, pp. 181-183. This document is important for inferring aspects of the lives of the enslaved Formans, who had immigrated as a group into Natchez on April 22, 1790. See Appendix II.
(page 157, par. 1, lines 3-5) Margaret and her minor children were conferred a series of land grants gratis The land grants are abstracted in: McBee, M.W. The Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805: Abstracts of Early Records. p. 363 Claim No. 1250, 600 acres to David Forman (Ezekiel’s son 1787 -1821). William Gordon Forman confirmed in an 1804 court action, that this David was Ezekiel’s son, rather than General David Forman. If the latter were the recipient, the 600 acres would have been part of General David Forman’s protracted estate litigation; p. 378 Claim No. 1254, 600 acres to Augustina Forman; p. 380 Claim No. 1255, 600 acres to Dona Margaret Forman; p. 381 Claim No. 1256, 600 acres to Francisco (Frances) Forman, 600 acres. The earliest Spanish orders for land surveys in the Natchez District on behalf of Anglo immigrants from the United States is dated April 20, 1784, and the latest, September 1, 1795. See Claiborne, Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State, Vol. II, p. 140. Therefore, the land grants made to the widow Mrs. Margaret Forman and her children were among the last made to American ex pats by the Spanish administration.
(page 161, par. 5) The general humbly approached George Washington seeking appointment to lead the upcoming joint commission to induce the Spanish to cede Natchez To George Washington from David Forman, letter dated March 28, 1796. In: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Additional phrasing from General David Forman’s application reveals his mindset. He could handily pursue the estate litigation and physically surveying and marking the American-Spanish border across the dense backcountry, “obtaining justice without in the least interfering with any public functions…” He viewed the enslaved African Americans as chattel, albeit of particular value. He shared with Washington that interest in Natchez was a direct result of total ownership of “a considerable number of Negro slaves and other property [to the] value of ten thousand pounds currency.”
(page 161, par. 2) David Forman’s Will. Text appears in: McBee, M.W. The Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Ibid, p. 365; and Dandridge, Anne S. The Forman Genealogy, pp. 102-114. Original ms can be found in Mississippi Territorial Era Manuscripts, 1797-1817, Natchez Trace Collection, Austin: U Texas Briscoe Library, box 35057, lot 5. An accompanying document proofs the will at Natchez, June 10, 1800, and is signed by executor William Gordon Forman and prominent regional citizen William Dunbar. Dandridge omitted from her transcription of the will: “It has pleased God to deprive my beloved wife, Ann, of her reason…” Mrs. Ann Marsh Forman (born December 3, 1751 in Chesterton, MD) died September 9, 1798, within a year of her husband. I am unaware of any surviving documents written by her or describing her life, character, and personality.
General David Forman’s will lay heavy responsibilities and a favored position on his son-in-law and nephew William Gordon Forman and his own eldest daughter Sarah Marsh Forman (born February. 1, 1773, died January 18, 1799). A series of unforeseen deaths between 1795 and 1799 – Ezekiel Forman in May 1795, General David Forman in October 1797, his wife Anne Marsh Forman in 1798, daughter and William G’s wife Sarah Marsh Forman in early 1799 – left William Gordon Forman as executor to the estate and required him to make large payments to General David Forman’s surviving daughters. All three of his male children pre-deceased the General. This situation triggered prolonged litigation pitting those daughters, their husbands, and heirs against William Gordon Forman and his heirs, seeking what they believed to be their shares of General David Forman’s inheritance.
Like that of many a Southern plantation owner, the estate was rich in land and slaves, while being strapped for cash. The litigation of General David Forman’s estate dragged on well into the nineteenth century. Close scrutiny of it can be used to divine the details of Ezekiel Forman’s pioneering dealings in Spanish Natchez. The litigation is tangled and confusing. It appears to have included questionable maneuvers by William Gordon Forman to evade or minimize his financial responsibilities to the surviving daughters of General David Forman. A good summary of this estate administration tangle is in: Thompson, Robert J. Colonel James Neilson: A Business Man of the Early Machine Age in New Jersey, pp. 47-62.
General Forman did not leave a controlling interest of any assets to his wife, whom “God considered insane.” I can find no details concerning why, when, and under what circumstances the general judged his wife to be non compos mentis. She a year following er husband. Her one seventh share of the estate passed to her eldest daughter Mrs. Sarah Marsh Forman, who in turn died before in 1799. The general’s son-in-law William Gordon Forman therefore lay direct claim to his deceased wife’s share, his deceased mother-in-law’s share, and was the surviving co-executor of the entire estate of General David Forman. That inheritance included all the general’s estates, their contents, chattel, the enslaved African Americans who had emigrated from Monmouth, New Jersey, and their descendants born at their new home in Natchez, now the most populous region in the new U.S. Mississippi Territory.