Mary Young asks the court to divide her father's land, 1871 to 1872

On March 6, 1871, Mary M. Young of Monroe County, Mississippi, and her husband, J. N. Young, swore to a bill of complaint in the county's chancery court. It asked the court to divide the land her late father had left, or to sell it, and said her brother Williamson Westbrooks had worked it alone for about ten years. The bill gave Mary and Jasper's side of the matter; the court never ruled on it.

The family in the bill

Mary was born on July 23, 1841, by her gravestone, and married Jasper Newton Young on May 8, 1865. The court papers spell her maiden name Westbrooks; the family tree enters it Westbrook. The bill says her father, Henry Westbrooks, died in Monroe County in 1852 without a will, leaving a widow, Elizabeth Westbrooks, and eight children: Williamson, Louisa, Catharine (wife of Henry Wilson), Bluford, Zachariah, Rachel, Mary and Vina H. Vina, the youngest, was still a minor: the bill puts her at nineteen on March 1, 1871, and names Jasper Young as her "next friend," the adult who may sue for a minor. the adult who may sue for a minor.

The bill describes the land as the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 12, Range 7 in Monroe County, less one-eighth of an acre in its northeast corner. Their daughter Mary Catherine, born in 1870, appears to provide the link to the Dixon family: her son Louis Gordon Dixon was the father of Evelyn Dixon Oak.

What the bill said

The bill set out the couple's grievances in order.

The widow's dower had never been set off. Dower was a widow's right to the use of part of her late husband's land for her life. The bill said Elizabeth had left the land and taken Vina with her. It said Williamson had had "the sole use and occupancy" of the land for about ten years, so that Vina and the other heirs got nothing from it. And it said that on April 2, 1870, Louisa and Rachel, both of age, had signed a release of their shares in their father's estate and delivered it to Mary, who therefore claimed three shares in all. The bill refers to a copy of that release, filed with it as Exhibit A.

The bill closes with what Mary asked for. It named the widow and the other heirs as defendants, among them Catharine and her husband in Itawamba County, and asked that they be summoned to answer in the Monroe County chancery court on the fourth Monday of April 1871. It asked that the court either appoint a commission to divide the land or order it sold, "as to your Honor may deem proper," and in either case subject to the widow's dower. It also asked that the widow's dower interest be sold by a commissioner, with the proceeds held for Vina by a suitable person under bond until she came of age.

The last page records the couple's oath. Mary and Jasper swore before the chancery clerk on March 6, 1871 that the facts in the bill that were of their own knowledge were true, and that those they had from others they believed to be true. A clerk's note on the filing reads September 9, but the last digit of the year is obscured.

The motion to dismiss

Williamson's surviving response asks the court to dismiss the bill on procedural grounds; it does not deny the couple's allegations. At the January term of 1872 he moved to dismiss the bill on two grounds, the first stated twice in slightly different words: the exhibits the bill referred to had not been attached or shown in any way, and the bill was otherwise informal and not in the form the chancery rules required. The clerk's note puts the motion's filing on January 2, 1872. It says nothing about who owned the land or what Williamson had done with it. The missing exhibit mattered: it was the 1870 release on which Mary's claim to three shares rested.

Subpoenas were issued on January 5, 1872, summoning Williamson, Elizabeth, Bluford, Zachariah and Rachel to appear at the courthouse in Aberdeen on the fourth Monday of January, and the sheriffs' returns show writs served in both Monroe and Itawamba counties that month.

How it ended: the docket

In October 2026 the Monroe County chancery clerk sent copies of the court's own docket entry and of the deeds the heirs recorded. The docket lists the case as Mary M. Young and her husband J. N. Young, and the same J. N. Young as next friend of Vina H. Westbrooks, against Williamson, Louisa, Catharine Wilson (wife of Henry Wilson), Bluford, Zachariah and Rachel D. Westbrooks. It records the bill, the subpoenas to Itawamba and Monroe counties on January 5, 1872, and the Itawamba return on January 17. The handwriting appears to read: "Motion to dismiss withdrawn. Dismissed at Deft's Cost." The last words are hard to read, and the docket gives no reason for dismissal. The case ended there, with no decree dividing or selling the land.

The heirs sign their shares over to Williamson

The deed copies the clerk enclosed trace the transfer of the heirs' shares. The clerk wrote that the heirs filed the enclosed deeds in the county records "to sufficiently release any claims" they had to the land. Four are tied to the family, and each carries its Deed Book and page in the corner.

The first came before the suit was heard. On December 17, 1870, Henry Wilson and his wife Catharine gave Williamson all their right in "the Estate of Henry Westbrooks deceased" for fifty dollars. It was acknowledged before a justice of the peace that day and filed on March 13, 1871, a week after Mary and Jasper swore their bill, which still named Catharine as a defendant. Deed Book 30, pages 13 and 14.

On July 31, 1872, Jasper N. Young and his wife Mary M., with Louisa and Rachel D. Westbrooks, quitclaimed their claim in the same quarter section to Williamson for $375, "belonging to the Estate of Henry Westbrooks deceased." That is the sum paid for the shares of Mary, Louisa and Rachel, the three Mary had claimed in her bill. It was acknowledged on August 5 and recorded on August 24, 1872. Deed Book 32, page 225.

On August 5, 1872, Bluford Westbrooks and his wife, and Zachariah and his wife Catharine, released their shares to Williamson for fifty dollars each. The brother's initial is hard to read and may be Z or J, so this is read as Zachariah. It was recorded on August 24. Deed Book 32, page 229.

Williamson borrows the money

Four days later, on August 9, 1872, Williamson gave R. B. Hutchinson, as trustee, a deed of trust on the northwest quarter of Section 14 to secure a $375 debt to Jasper N. Young, due January 1, 1873. The amount matches the quitclaim, so Williamson most likely borrowed from Jasper the money he paid Mary and her sisters, and put the land up as security. A note in the margin says the debt was paid in full in January 1873 and the deed of trust cancelled, signed by Hutchinson and Young. Deed Book 32, pages 229 and 230.

What the papers still do not show

The copies do not include a release from Vina or from the widow Elizabeth, or the April 2, 1870 release from Louisa and Rachel to Mary. They do not show what Vina received, or whether the dower was ever set off. The reported death years, 1898 for Mary and 1901 for Jasper, also remain unconfirmed.

Sources

• Monroe County, Mississippi, Chancery Court, case 1455, Mary M. Young et al. v. Williamson Westbrooks et al.: bill of complaint (three pages and the close, with the complainants' affidavit sworn March 6, 1871) and the defendant's motion to dismiss, January Term 1872. Original papers of the county chancery clerk, via Ancestry.com, Mississippi Wills and Probate Records.
• Monroe County, Mississippi, Chancery Docket, case 1455 (1872 entries). Copy supplied by the Monroe County Chancery Clerk, October 6, 2026.
• Monroe County, Mississippi, Deed Book 30, pp. 13-14 (the Wilson release, December 17, 1870), and Deed Book 32, pp. 225, 229 and 230 (the quitclaim of July 31, 1872, the release of August 5, 1872, and Williamson Westbrooks's deed of trust to R. B. Hutchinson). Copies supplied by the Monroe County Chancery Clerk, October 6, 2026.
• The family tree, for the reported death years of Mary (1898) and Jasper (1901), which no record seen so far confirms.