Jones v. Reddick

• Citation: 79 N.C. 290
• Parties: G. P. H. JONES and others v. N. J. REDDICK and others.
• Decision Date: 30 June 1878
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

79 N.C. 290

G. P. H. JONES and others

v.N. J. REDDICK and others.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June Term, 1878.

CIVIL ACTION, tried at Spring Term, 1878, of GATES Superior Court, before Furches, J.

This was an action for the recovery of land, and the plaintiffs' right of recovery turns upon the question,--whether they are the “lawful children” of Alfred E. Jones, the son of Frederick Jones, the testator. Upon the trial of this issue before the jury, one E. T. Jones testified that he was a brother of Alfred E. Jones, and remembered that his brother left this State in 1850, removed first to Florida, and thence to Georgia; that he visited him in Savannah, Georgia, during the war, and he was then married and had three children; that his wife's name was Sarah, and the names of his children, Georgiana, Virginia, and George Paul Harrison; that he had no personal knowledge of the marriage, but that he lived in his brother Alfred's family eleven months, in Savannah, and that he was then living with a woman named Sarah who appeared to be his wife, sat at the head of the table, and was the mother of the children named; that he corresponded with the family since, and heard that Georgiana had died, and another child named Emily had since been born, and that when he was there during the war as aforesaid, the eldest child was six or seven years old.

The plaintiffs next introduced the deposition of R. W. Russell, an attorney at law, residing in Savannah, Georgia, who testified that he knew the plaintiffs, and that they are the children of Alfred E. Jones and Sarah A. Jones, his wife; that he had known Alfred twenty-two years, and that he died in Savannah on the 15th of December, 1874.

The plaintiffs then produced and read in evidence a duly certified copy of a marriage license of Alfred E. Jones and Sarah A. Dill, taken from the records of the Court of Ordinary of Chatham county, Georgia, and of a certificate that they were duly married on the 22d of May, 1850, signed by the Rev. James E. Godfrey, the minister who performed the ceremony of marriage.

All the foregoing evidence was admitted without objection, but upon it, the defendants asked the Court to instruct the jury, that it was not sufficient to warrant them in finding that Alfred E. Jones had been legally married, and that the plaintiffs are his lawful children. His Honor refused the instruction, and the jury found the issue in favor of the plaintiffs. Judgment. Appeal by defendants.

No counsel for plaintiffs.

Messrs. Gilliam & Gatling, for defendants .

BYNUM, J. (After stating the case as...