Dear Sheridan,

I’ve been on something of a similar hunt.  

In all likelihood Mr. Robertson’s will (if he had one) is on file in Bedford County.  If you write to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Bedford County with Mr. Robertson’s name and date of death, they will locate and print (at a modest fee per page) both the will and any estate documents.  Somewhere in those files you may find what your looking for; but slave names would usually only occur where they were to be divided among various heirs.  Even if Robertson died without a will, there should be a file on his estate with items, hopefully including a slave inventory, by his administrator(s) - here again if such an estate file is within their records the Clerk’s office will reproduce it for you.  Some Virginia Counties have gone to the effort to separately collect their records of slaves bought, sold and freed (manumitted).  I don’t know if Bedford County has done that, but if they have it will be an important resource.  If you are lucky, the County will have listed some of their documentary resources [and items that are missing] on its website that you can locate with Google.

Good Luck

Jack Fallin


> On May 13, 2019, at 9:00 PM, VA-ROOTS automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> There is 1 message totaling 24 lines in this issue.
> 
> Topics of the day:
> 
>  1. Jane
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Mon, 13 May 2019 12:35:53 -0400
> From:    SBrown <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Jane
> 
> I am looking for the will and list of slaves owned by Nicholas Robertson
> III (1766-1848) He was born in Chesterfield County and died in Bedford
> County. I am trying to see if he owned Jane (Ferguson), mother to Booker T.
> Washington, and left her to his daughter, Elizabeth Robertson Burroughs
> (1802-1895) in his estate. I have not been able to find either on
> Ancestry. Thank
> you.
> Sheridan Brown
> about.me/brownsheridan
> browncrawford.wordpress.com
> 
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