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From: "Chad Milliner" <>
Subject: [APG] SC puzzler
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:35:25 -0600


I am working on a case in which the client's ancestor, William HUDSON, was listed as a legatee in the will of a different William HUDSON. This will dated 18 Feb 1788 (and probated on 5 April 1788) states "I, William HUDSON, of the State of South Carolina and Parish of St. Barthlomew's [which is now in Colleton County and at the time was in Charleston District] ... bequeth unto Mrs. Elizabeth MOORE, her son William HUDSON [the client's ancestor] and her daughter Mary HUDSON [who later married a man named Edward HARPER] all my real and personal estate to be equally divided ..." At the time the legatees William and Mary were minor children, which the will notes.

At first I thought this was perhaps a case in which the testator died sans progeny and he thus left his estate to the remarried widow of a brother and to his nephew and niece. However, now I am not so sure, because when I investigated the early land records, I found that a William HUDSON of St. Bartholomew had a wife named Elizabeth as of 19 March 1787, on which date he sold land there to a John WIGGINS. This William HUDSON was not involved in any known land transactions after that date, and he does not appear in the 1790 census, thus leading me to believe that he was the William HUDSON who died in 1788. Since the testator's wife a year prior to the writing of the will had the same given name as one of the legatees in the will, I am wondering if there is any possibility that his marriage could have ended in divorce between 19 March 1787 and 5 April 1788, with his former wife then marrying a man named MOORE. One obvious flaw in this theory is -- why would a man give prope!
rty to his former wife, but since Mrs. Elizabeth MOORE inherited 1/3 of the estate, perhaps this could have been a substitute for her dower.... The bigger problem is that SC made getting a divorce at that time very difficult. According a page on the SC Genweb site, "even though prior to 1868 divorce in SC was not legal, a legislative act or the local district court of equity could grant divorce or separate maintenance. This was very, very rare." Does anyone know how I would go about determining whether the SC legislature did in fact pass an act for this proposed divorce? Has anyone published a compilation of pre-1868 SC divorce records? Does SC have an equivalent of VA's Hennings Statutes at Large?

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