In the 1860/1861 Witherspoon estate inventories, Family Group 4 (FG04) was composed of Francis, Paris, Juliet (Julia), and Pleasant. This group appears to consist of a mother (Francis) and her three children. Pleasant is listed as a newborn on estate documents which suggests that she was born in 1861 or early 1862. Francis and her children were enslaved on Lowthers Lake Plantation near Mechanicsville, South Carolina1. Background on the Lowthers Lake Plantation and the Witherspoon family can be found here.
After the death of John D. Witherspoon in 1860 and the murder of his wife Elizabeth 1861, the enslaved community was divided by court order. All members of FG04 were sent to John D. Witherspoon’s son, John Witherspoon, as part of the estate division2. Unfortunately, labor contracts for John Witherspoon’s plantations located across the Pee Dee River in Marlboro District have not been located to date.
No Family Group 4 members have been concretely identified in federal or state census records. A potential, yet unconfirmed, candidate for Francis is Francis Bostick found in the 1870 Federal Census living in Hamilton Township of Darlington District. According to census records from 1870, 1880 and 1900, Francis Bostick (later Francis Jessie) was born around 1840 or several years earlier. The best evidence that potentially links Francis from FG04 to Francis Bostick in 1870 is the presence of a child named Pleasant born in 1860 (Paris and Juliet do not appear). While the connection between Francis from FG04 and Francis Bostick is conjectural, further research may help confirm or reject this linkage.
