Tuesday, April 3, 2012

A Horry District Administration Bond


An Administration Bond is INSURANCE.  It guarantees that an executor or administrator of an estate will conduct their duties in accordance with the laws of the state. It also protects the estate from dishonest acts, such as theft and fraud, by the executor or administrator. The administration bond provides security for the estate.  

Gilbert Purvis - Horry District, SC - March 1818[1]
Recorded March 1818

State of South Carolina }
Horry District } Know all men by these presents that we John Johnston, Gilbert Purvis, Moses Harrelson and Felix Powell are holden and firmly bound unto Henry Durant Esquire Ordinary for aforesaid District in the full and just sum of Ten Thousand to be paid to the said Henry Durant or to his successors of this District or their certain attorney or officers, To which payment will and truly be made, and we bind ourselves and every of us own and every of our heirs, executors, administrators, for the whole and in the whole jointly and severally firmly by these presents sealed with our seals and dated the Seventeenth Day of July one thousand eight hundred and eighteen and in the 43rd year of America Independence.
The condition of the above obligation is such that if the above bound John Johnston and Gilbert Purvis administrators of the goods, chattels and credits of James Purvis deceased do make a true and perfect inventory of all and singular, the goods, chattels, credits of the said deceased, which shall come into the hands of knowledge of the said John Johnston, Gilbert Purvis, or unto the hands of any other person or persons for them and the same so made to which unto the said aunt of ordinary when he shall be hereunto covered and such goods, chattels and credits do well and truly administer according to law and do make a just and true account of their actions and do required by the said Court and all the rest of the said  goods and credits which shall be found remaining upon the amount of the said administration, the same being first allowed by the said Court shall deliver and execute such persons respectively, as are entitled to the same by law and of it shall deliver hereafter appears that any Last Will and testament was made by the said deceased, and the same be proved in Court, and the executors obtain a certificate of the probate thereof, and the said John Johnston, Gilbert Purvis do in such case, if required, render and deliver all the said letters of administration, then this obligation to be void or else to remain full force. Signed
Witness:                                                                    John Johnston {seal}
Richard Singleton                                                      Gilbert X Purvis {seal}
Levi Moore                                                               Moses Harrelson {seal}
Recorded 17 July 1818                                              Felix Powell  {seal}


This document is a bond for the Estate of James Purvis, son of Gilbert Purvis. It's a major document in the research of this particular line. In 1810, a young James Purvis is enumerated with his wife in the 1810 Census for Chesterfield County, South Carolina[2].

Eight years later, we have this administration bond and the death of James Purvis. Fast forward now to November 1835 and the death of Gilbert Purvis' son Gilbert Johnson Purvis.
Gilbert Johnson Purvis left a Will.[3] In that Will we find this statement: "the estate of my deceased parents to which I am entitled insisting upon the advance made by my deceased father the said Gilbert Purvis to James Purvis the father of the said James P. J. Purvis in the lifetime of them both,"

Within the estate file of Efficia Howell Purvis[4], wife of Gilbert Purvis, there is a request for letters of administration from James P. J. Purvis. Within that letter we have this statement "That your petitioner is the grandson of the said deceased, being the oldest son of her oldest son.  That no other person has applied or seems willing to apply for letters of administrations on said estate"
Shortly, after the death of James Purvis, Gilbert Purvis along with several brothers migrated to Clarke County, Alabama and eventually to the Hinds & Rankin County area of Mississippi, where they lived the remainder of their lives.

Now we have several documents that indicated that Gilbert and Efficia Howell Purvis have a son named James Purvis. James Purvis is their oldest son and that James Purvis also had a son named James P. J. Purvis. 

Additional evidence within the estate of James Purvis, Sr.; Effica Purvis; Gilbert Johnson Purvis and James P. J. Purvis suggests that James P. J. Purvis had a brother. While there is  circumstantial evidence to reach this conclusion no "primary source document" has been found, as of this date, to say conclusively that there is a brother. Clearly, this statement by James P. J. Purvis suggests that he has a brother - "being the oldest son of her oldest son." If James P. J. Purvis was the only son of James Purvis there would be no need to make the statement "being the oldest son of her oldest son.


[1] Horry County South Carolina, Horry District Administration Bonds 1803-1818 (Conway, Horry County, South Carolina: Probate Office, n.d.), Administration Bond - Gilbert Purvis, page 71.
[2] 1810 U S Census, Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina,population schedule, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district(ED) No ED, Page: 553, Household of James Purvis, Jr.; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 2011); citing Family History Number: 0181419., page 553.
[3] Hinds County, Mississippi, Will Book 1: page 48, Gilbert Johnson Purvis; Family History Library, Film #878728, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[4] Hinds County, MS, Probate Court Estates, Old Series, Raymond, MS, MDAH Microfilm #10392, Family History Library Film #1064400, Estate #321, James P. J. Purvis, Feb 1836. .

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