The Will of Benjamin Yates born 1792

Petition to sell real estate

Elijah F. Roberson
Administrator of the estate of
Benjamin Yates deed


Be it remembered that heretofore to wit:

Oct 24 1865 this following petition was filed in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Crawford County Indiana by said administrator to wit: the undersigned administrator of the Estate of Benjamin Yates Deed would represent to the court of Common Pleas of said County that the personal estate of said decedent amounts to the probable sum of $340 and that the claims against the same so far as the sum has come to the knowledge of your petitioner amount to the probable sum of $1,400-leaving $1,000 of indebtedness over the value of the personal estate that decedent died the owner in fee simple of the following Real Estate in Crawford County Indiana The East Half of The North West Quarter, and the North West Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section 14, in Township three South, of Range 1 West, the East Quarter of the North East Quarter of Section 15 and the South Half of the North West Quarter of the North East Quarter of Section 15 same Town & Range containing in all one hundred acres.

And that decedent left as his heirs the following persons who are his nephews JOHN YATES, TOLBERT YATES, SILAS YATES, DANIEL YATES, ELI YATES, SILAS YATES, WILLIAM YATES and GEORGE YATES and the following persons who are his nieces CASA MARTIN, RACHAEL HUGHES, SARAH BELL, NELLIE PITTMAN and SARAH YATES who resides as follows and who are all of age and state the above are all the heirs of decedent who are known to your petitioner except the unknown heirs of Robert Yates deed, the unknown heirs James Yates Deed and the unknown heirs of John Yates and the unknown heirs of John Yates, Jr. and the heirs of Casa Yates and he therefore asks for an order to sell such Real Estate.

E. F. Roberson



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 24th Day of October, 1865



J. M. Lemonds CK


From this, we know that Benjamin Yates left no children as his heirs, only eight nephews, and five nieces, all of age in 1865; John, Tolbert, Silas, Daniel, Eli, Silas, William, George and Casa Martin, Rachel Hughes, Sarah Bell, Nellie Pilliman, and Sarah Yates. (Sarah Bell was Sarah Elizabeth Bell, who links us with the Yates line. I believe Nellie Pilliman was Ellen Pittman, for the names Ellen and Nellie were often interchanged, and it requires only a stroke of the pen, left undone by whoever was drafting the document, to change Pilliman to Pittman.)

After the heirs that were known to the petitioner were listed, he made himself safe, in the legal way, by adding "the unknown heirs of Robert Yates, deceased, the unknown heirs of James Yates, deceased, and the unknown heirs of John Yates and the unknown heirs of John Yates Jr. and the heirs of Casa Yates. So these, with the exception of John Yates, are the brothers and sister of Benjamin Yates, giving us, for the first time, a true Family Group Sheet, with John Yates their father.

Will of Benjamin Yates b. 1792
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