Papers concerning the will of Zephaniah Kingsley, 1844, 1846.

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Petitions contesting the will of slave-trader and planter Zephaniah Kingsley of Fort George Island, Florida, were made after his death in 1843 by many of his collateral relatives, who doubted the legality of the terms of his will. Kingsley was notorious for many reasons, most notably for his marriage to an African princess, Anna Madgigene Jai, and to other lesser wives. In his will, Kingsley sought to provide for his wives and for his mixed issue, and in so doing, brought on bitter complaints from his relatives when his will was probated in Jacksonville. They believed it was against public policy to leave one’s property to progeny of miscegenation. Ultimately, Kingsley’s will was upheld, but the estate was considerably depleted in the meantime by poor administration.

The terms of his will prove that the nonconformist Kingsley was embittered by the racial discrimination practiced in this society and sought, by this document, to ensure the freedom and financial well-being of the children he had by his various colored wives. He had in 1835 sent his wife and children to Haiti, fearing for their safety in the Florida territory. In the will, he recommended to his executors that slave families not be separated without their consent, that his slaves be given the privilege of buying their freedom atone half their value, and that they be given

ample opportunity to go to Haiti if they could not remain free in Florida. He enjoined his “natural and colored children” to keep a legally executed will at all times in order to direct the disposal of their goods in the event of death, “until they remove themselves and properties to some land of liberty and equal rights, where the conditions of society are governed by some law less absurd than that of color.”

Executors of the will were Kingsley B. Gibbs, George Kingsley, and Benjamin A. Putnam. Among the petitioners to the will was Anna McNeill Whistler, mother of the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler and subject of his famous portrait. The executors were inept and uninterested in fulfilling the terms of the will; as a consequence, Kingsley’s wives and children were slow to receive their shares of the estate. Anna Jai Kingsley persisted in her demands to secure her share and those of her children, returning around 1846 to Duval County from Haiti in order to eliminate the tremendous problem of distance. In 1847, she finally received $2,000.00 from Gibbs and Putnam under order of the Duval County probate court.

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 is dated September 5, 1846.