Details
LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph document (unsigned), a legal brief CONTAINING ABOUT 405 WORDS IN LINCOLN'S HAND, and with 13 corrections and additions by Lincoln in blue ink, n.p. [Edgar County, Illinois?], n.d. [circa 1850]. 2¼ pages, folio, very slight browning, otherwise in excellent condition. Typed transcript.
SETTLING A COMPLEX ESTATE. Lincoln, apparently arguing for the defense, sums up (possibly at the time of the verdict) the case of "Stanfield et al vs. The People, etc.," involving a partner in a store who had died intestate. Lincoln writes: "Be it remembered that on the trial of this cause, the plaintiffs relied on proving First that the defendant Stanfield had failed to pay over money in his hands...Secondly, that he had failed to make and file...with the Probate Justice, a full true and perfect inventory of the effects of his intestate...-- Said plaintiffs introduced all the papers and records in the Probate office pertaining to the intestate's estate as general evidence in the cause...."
"[I]t was proved by one Cowen that previous to intestate's death, intestate, Stanfield, and witness were equal partners in a Store, that after his death, funds belonging to the firm...came to the hands of Stanfield, amounting to [$3,276.37]...[T]hat at intestate's death, intestate owed that firm between [$70] and [$80] dollars, witness over [$130] and Stanfield over [$200]..." Lincoln goes on to minutely detail the complex financial transactions between the parties to the case, noting that the men had purchased "a carding machine & some horses to run it, on credit, at one thousand dollars," which they later sold, and that Stanfield was also owed for the intestate's boarding "since he last came from Ohio...and that boarding was worth about two dollars per week." Provenance: Roy P. Crocker Collection (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 28 November 1979, lot 218).
SETTLING A COMPLEX ESTATE. Lincoln, apparently arguing for the defense, sums up (possibly at the time of the verdict) the case of "Stanfield et al vs. The People, etc.," involving a partner in a store who had died intestate. Lincoln writes: "Be it remembered that on the trial of this cause, the plaintiffs relied on proving First that the defendant Stanfield had failed to pay over money in his hands...Secondly, that he had failed to make and file...with the Probate Justice, a full true and perfect inventory of the effects of his intestate...-- Said plaintiffs introduced all the papers and records in the Probate office pertaining to the intestate's estate as general evidence in the cause...."
"[I]t was proved by one Cowen that previous to intestate's death, intestate, Stanfield, and witness were equal partners in a Store, that after his death, funds belonging to the firm...came to the hands of Stanfield, amounting to [$3,276.37]...[T]hat at intestate's death, intestate owed that firm between [$70] and [$80] dollars, witness over [$130] and Stanfield over [$200]..." Lincoln goes on to minutely detail the complex financial transactions between the parties to the case, noting that the men had purchased "a carding machine & some horses to run it, on credit, at one thousand dollars," which they later sold, and that Stanfield was also owed for the intestate's boarding "since he last came from Ohio...and that boarding was worth about two dollars per week." Provenance: Roy P. Crocker Collection (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 28 November 1979, lot 218).