Day 7 - Before the Beak

The Magistrate, His honour, John Alleyne Beckles, invited Theodore to make his case.

“My Lord, may I make some observations on the inventory of Miss Gall’s Estate exhibited by William and Henry Beckles Gall to appraisers for valuation – in as far as certain land and negroes were by them abstracted from the property and kept out of sight?”

The Magistrate nodded. It was clear that the last of the morning’s hearings was going to be especially tedious. He was not at all impressed by Theodore, an American, representing himself.

“The land which was periodically returned to the Parish Officers at St.John’s as the property of Elizabeth Gall, during the whole period of her life, consisted of 28½ acres. But in the inventory exhibited to appraisers on 13 November 1831 – it is stated at only 19 acres.

“Likewise on examination of the Slave List, three names are found wanting: and these three of the most valuable slaves on the estate, namely Sam an experienced driver, Lake a mason: and James Edward another experienced field worker. 

“Doctor Gall, father of the present William & Henry Beckles Gall, was eldest son to William Gall from whom the estate of Old Stingo had been taken by creditors.   All William’s other property had likewise been wrested from him: and he died in Bridgetown Jail, pennyless, leaving nothing to descend to his children. The estate, first Old Stingo’s: then his: and afterwards divided among many claimants, became finally the property of Miss Mary Ann Gall who, we may presume, purchased it fairly, and paid for it honourably: for she retained peaceable possession until she died in 1810 or 1811, when she passed it to her surviving sister the late possessor Miss Elizabeth Gall, by will.

“Doctor Gall was certainly heir at Law to his father, in whom had any right legally vested he could have claimed it.   Now had he not been conscious that the title to the estate did not vest in his father, but exclusively and fully in his aunt Mary Ann: can it be supposed he would tamely have acquiesced in the retention by the latter so many years of what ought to be his by virtue of heirship?

“The Estate, be it remembered, consisted of 28½ acres. Thus his perfect acquiescence is an acknowledgement on his part that the whole 28½ acres of which the estate consisted, did truly belong to his aunt Mary Ann.  And these same 28½ acres were made up of constituent parts: such for instance as eight acres laid off to Lindo in 1797: the portions to Howell, to Lytcott, to Haynes and the 9½ acres marked as Dower Land.   No matter whether Mary Ann acquired these by Marshal’s sale, by private negotiation, or in any other way whatever: the Heir of Old Stingo and of William Gall left her at free liberty to the undisturbed enjoyment of her rights.

“Suppose at the death of his aunt Mary Ann Gall, Doctor Gall had contested with his aunt Elizabeth, her right to possess these 9½ acres of Dower Land, and the three slaves, Sam, Lake and James Edward claiming them for himself as Heir at Law, either to Old Stingo or his father William, or to his aunt Mary Ann. What would Lord Commissioner Eyrs, Lord Camden, or any High Chancellor have answered him? 

----- If a party having knowledge of his rights will sit still and without asserting them permit persons to act as if they did not exist: to acquire interests and consider themselves as owners of the property to which the other will not assert his claim: there is no reason why every presumption should not arrive.

----It is a presumption of fact in legal proceedings, that claims the most solemnly established upon the face of them, will be presumed to be satisfied after a certain length of time.

----A court of Equity is not active in giving relief against conscience and public convenience. Nothing can call this court into activity but conscience, good faith, and reasonable diligence. Where they are wanting, the court is passive and does nothing.

“Among the legacies GIVEN BY Mary Ann, there was one for this son of her deceased brother William: and modicum though it was, perhaps not exceeding five pounds, he did not disdain to receive it: not with thankfulness, but with such manifestation of ill will towards his Aunt Elizabeth who transmitted it. As to provoke her to determine to cut him off from her own inheritance.   That she finally considered his children in her will is attributable to the interception of friends and especially of the late Miss Margaret C Gall.   While yet highly exasperated against her nephew, Doctor Gall, and denominating his children “young scorpions” she gave to them, not even knowing their names, the one fifth in her Residium: which had she thought him deserving her bounty, would surely been assigned to him.

“Doctor Gall continued to live, after the expiration of the Dower term, through the whole life of Mary Ann Gall, while in the possession of that which had been dower land and slaves: and many years after her successor, his aunt Elizabeth, came in possession: and finally died, never having lisped an intention of claiming for himself.    Nevertheless that the Doctor was not indisposed to take such advantages as he could avail himself of, we may infer from the fact of his demanding from the new possessor the restoration to himself an Heir at Law of her deceased brother, Christopher Gall, his uncle, of the negro male Slave John, claimed by him to have been the said Christopher’s property: and which John, a slave of superior abilities, had been employed by Mary Ann as a principal overseer.  It is not now a question whether Elizabeth could have defended her title to this slave: she preferred to make him her own beyond contest: and therefore paid her nephew, the doctor, the amount he demanded.

“And why did not Doctor Gall at the same time claim the slaves, Sam: Lake: and James Edward and the nine acres which his son Henry avers to have been his right?    He took the legacy his Aunt Mary Ann bequeathed him, and he took the Slave John: how can it otherwise be accounted for that he left this so much more valuable property, than that he knew he could not pretend to it?

“I once remonstrated with Henry “If you indeed believe that your father slept upon his rights during the life of his Aunt Mary Ann, lest she should be provoked to cut him out , as she nevertheless has done: how, I ask, can you excuse  his not claiming immediately on her demise? And what is to be thought of yourself and brother who, you say, never ceased to believe yourselves entitled to this dower land and negroes through your father’s right to the reversion.: declaring moreover that your chief motive in coming from Demerary was to watch and reclaim your rights: still you left all in peaceable possession of the last occupant, suffering her even to die without broaching the subject?--- “Do you suppose” replied the crafty fox, “we were such cursed fools as to let her know our designs?”--- “I don’t perceive how otherwise you were to attain your ends?” rejoined I, interrogatively.     “Why can’t you see that she would cut us off from her inheritance” concluded the plotter of iniquity?   Here is the logic with a vengeance!!  What might Lord Camden say to this kind of conscience  asking redress in a court of equity?   Is this what may be called good faith to justify unreasonable delay?

“I who knew Doctor Gall’s character probably more intimately than his son Henry, can clean him from the foul aspersion thrown on the integrity of his intentions by such a charge as that it was in his contemplation to strip from his aunt any part of the estate descending to her by the sister’s last will. If at this late date, designing knaves may think their object assured because they have destroyed the marshals’ sales and other important documents of which they clandestinely and nefariously possessed themselves in the memo noble chamber of death – (of which more in its appropriate place) let them learn that in common law and in equity it is an established maxim that every fair presumption is to be made against a stale demand.  I want nothing better to parry Gall’s iniquitous aim than the Lord Chancellor’s declaration, which is law throughout the British Empire: “Possession for more than twenty years under a legal title shall never be disturbed in equity” I have not the least solicitude how Gall’s assertion that Miss Elizabeth Gall held only a life interest in the 9½ acres and 3 negroes now usurped by the heir at law shall be disproved. Every constituent part of the estate was held by one and the same tenure.  If the ingenious converts of brother’s grandchildren into nephews and Next of Kin has made any fresh discovery to support his chicanery, it cannot be in this quarter.   Neither does the onus probandi lie on the by them excluded Nieces and only true Next of Kin to the Testatrix: but on the recreant miscreant who pretends to claim for a false heir.

“Notwithstanding however that Henry Beckles Gall declares that both he and his brother steadily considered these nine acres of land to be the rightful property of his said brother William since the death of his father to whom they descended as Heir at Law to Old Stingo after the demise of the Widow Ann Gall who merely held a Dower Right in them.   And that for the purpose of claiming this right they abandoned their pursuits for a maintenance in Demerary, and came to Barbados: we have their own authority on public record in the Parish Books of St.John; and at the Treasurer’s office of the island, that they did not so consider any part of the estate.   They severally, year after year, attested on oath, that the whole 28 ½ acres of land, and three negros by name: Sam, Lake and James Edward: were actually the property of the individual Elizabeth Gall.   This fact is irreconcilable with their pretended claim.”  

The Magistrate took out his pocket watch and asked Henry Beckles whether he had much to say.

“No my Lord. As you know already of my impeccable reputation of impartiality for all matters public and private I feel that I can tell you plainly the facts of my brother’s inheritance. He is sadly indisposed today. The facts are simple. When my grandfather’s affairs became most difficult for no fault of his own, the money lenders conspired to take his estate from him bit by bit. At his death these ursurers had not managed to secure all his lands and his widow obtained the dower rights to over nine acres of the estate which contained a residency. This land was therefore separated from the rest of Old Stingo’s estate and the land could not be sold to pay off any debt. My dear Aunt Mimi had bought up various parcels of land to reinstate the estate to the Gall name, but she did not have to do anything about the Dower land, and on the death of Old Stingo’s widow she included it in the estate and then passed the entire estate to her sister. 

“My father was only a small boy when his father died and so had no knowledge of these matters until such time as Mr Barrell told him. It is therefore unsurprising that my father did not make any claim immediately. He of course lived in Demerara and had not access to official papers that were kept in Barbados. My mother told me that he intended to settle the matter when he was able to travel to Barbados but alas he never made this trip as he died on a voyage to England in 1819. Under my father’s will this inheritance of 9½ acres and the three slaves which had been retained as part of Old Stingo’s widow’s property passed to my brother William.

“Mr Burrell has not been able to produce any papers to justify his allegations and he clearly does not understand Barbadian law. I ask you to dismiss this action against my brother and my good name.”

The Magistrate dismissed the case and adjourned his court for luncheon. Henry Beckles had forewarned him of Burrell’s nature and he was more than happy to put this outsider in his place.

Day 8. An interlude