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Papers concerning the will of Zephaniah Kingsley, 1844, 1846.
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2.00 item
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Zephaniah Kingsley was born December 4, 1765 in England and came to the United States. Kingsley was a prolific enslaver and active participant in the transatlantic slave trade, frequently traveling to foreign ports to acquire additional enslaved men, women, and children for use at Laurel Grove, a 2600-acre labor farm on Doctor's Lake in Clay County, Florida. Kingsley purchased and subsequently married several enslaved African women, including Anna Madgigene Jai, a kidnapped princess of the Wollof Kingdom in present-day Senegal. Princess Anna, born Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye to Wollof ruler Mba Buri Niabu Ndiaye, in 1793, was kidnapped by slave traders in 1806 and forcibly married to Kingsley in Cuba the same year; she was 13 years old and already pregnant with George, the first of her four children by Kingsley. While Zephaniah considered Anna to be his principal wife, he was a polygamist and married three other enslaved Black women - Flora H. Kingsley, Sarah Murphy Kingsley, and Munsilna McGundo - by whom he had five additional children.
Zephaniah granted manumission to Anna when she turned eighteen in 1811, and later manumit his other three wives and all nine of his "colored and natural" children. Kingsley's extensive Florida land holdings were originally under Spanish rule, wherein the rights and abilities of his freed wives and children to own and manage both land and enslaved persons was recognized. This allowance did not extend to the Kingsley estate after Florida came under the United States' control in 1821. Despite growing racial tension in the South and concern for the legal status of his family, Zephaniah's land holdings expanded considerably throughout this period. By 1830, Kingsley reported substantial labor farm acreage in Nassau and Duval counties, recording 183 enslaved persons and 37 enslaved persons on each property, respectively. At this time, Zephaniah and Anna lived on the Duval property at Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island with eight of his freed children and other wives. There, Anna became an enslaver in her own right, purchasing her own contingent of enslaved men and women and controlling significant portions of Zephaniah's properties while he travelled for business.
In the late 1830s, recognizing that United States law did not provide the protections for freed Black people that Spanish law granted, Zephaniah transplanted Anna and one of her sons, along with his other wives and children to Haiti, where their freed status was less threatened. Upon his death in 1843, Zephaniah willed most of his estate to Anna and a portion to each of his children and additional wives. Zephaniah's white nephew, Kingsley B. Gibbs; Zephaniah and Anna's son, George Kingsley; and a white family friend, Benjamin A. Putnam executed the will. Several white relations quickly contested the legitimacy of Zephaniah's will. This included Zephaniah's sister Martha and her daughter, Anna, who argued that it was against public policy to bequeath property to non-white children.
George Kingsley, as co-executor and heir, stood to receive a full third of Zephaniah's estate - aside from a 2000-acre portion of land split between Kingsley Gibbs and another white nephew, George C. Gibbs - and "all my nautical instruments," in the original will. To claim that which was due to himself and his family, George sailed from Haiti to the United States in January 1846, landing in New York. While returning home to Haiti, the ship carrying George, Frank Henry, was lost at sea. Grieved by the loss of her son, Anna returned to Florida to fight for her rightful property and uphold the original will in Jacksonville probate court. While Anna was ultimately successful in court, poor administration by the executors had reduced the estate considerably by the close of legal proceedings in 1847.
Summary:
The collection contains two documents concerning the contesting of Zephaniah Kingsley's will. Included is the petition to the will made by Martha McNeill and others to Judge Farquhar Bethune, filed November 30, 1844. The other document is the executors' response (Benjamin A. Putnam and Kingsley B. Gibbs) to the petition of Anna M. J. Kingsley, widow of Zephaniah Kingsley. The response dates September 5, 1846.
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For more information on Kingsley B. Gibbs and the Fort George Island labor farm, see Collection M84-3, Kingsley Beatty Gibbs Journal, 1840-1843 (1 volume). A copy of Zephaniah Kingsley's will can be found in Series S49, Florida Supreme Court Case Files (Box 470) and digitized on Florida Memory.
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Kingsley, Z. 1765-1843 (Zephaniah),
Probate records Florida --Duval County
Probate records. aat
Duval County (Fla.)
Added Entries
Gibbs, Kingsley Beatty, 1810-1860
Putnam, Benjamin A.
McNeill, Martha.
for detailed listing.