Enslaved Individuals: Suey Frances

Suey Frances


Documented History

Suey Frances was a resident of Page County, Virginia, in 1857; she is listed as one of ten enslaved individuals in an inventory of the estate of Benjamin Sedwick taken on 1 July of that year. Upon the settlement of Sedwick’s estate, she went to the household of his daughter, Harriet Ann Shenk, also in Page County.


Speculations

Suey Frances was listed as a woman in the records related to Sedwick’s estate; she was therefore likely to have been at least in her teens in 1857, and thus born before 1845.


Connections

Alexander, Charles, Charles Daniel, Daniel, Emily Jane, Isaac, Jacob, Jane, and Martha were enslaved along with Suey Frances in Benjamin Sedwick’s household at the time of Sedwick’s death in 1857. Charles also went to the Shenk household upon the settlement of Sedwick’s estate.


Sources

Page County, Virginia, Will Book G, Last Will and Testament of Benjamin Sedwick, page 54; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Page County, Virginia, Will Book G, “Inventory and appraisement of the personal property of Benjamin Sedwick decd., of Page County, Virginia July 1st. 1857” page 94; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Papers of the Strickler Family, 1791-1898, Accession No. 7489, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va., “Estate Account of Benj. Sedwick dec’d with Harrison Strickler Exor.”

1860 U.S. census, Page County, Virginia, slave schedule, District 4, page 11, Samuel H. Shenk, slaveowner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), “1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules”; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M653.