57Deed Records of Harris County, L (letter of alphabet), 528. In 1843
someone interested in a free woman named Martha, daughter of Violet
Hamlet, filed the will of Merrit M. Coates, dated October 2, 1823, in which
Coates emancipated Violet and her son Carter. Samuel May Williams stated
that Coates had kept Violet as his wife. Ibid.,
H, 515. On January 3, 1838,
Chief Justice Briscoe appointed his mother-in-law, Mrs. Jane Harris,
guardian of Martha, the fourteen-year-old daughter of the deceased Violet.
Probate Records of Harris County, A, 332. On January 10, 1844, John W.
Moore made an affidavit that Martha, then the wife of Peter Towns, had
been considered a free negro since 1827, when Coates apparently died. Deed
Records, I (letter of the alphabet), 204. Lucille, a free woman, on May 6,
1851, filed a deed of emancipation from R. C. Ballard, of Natchez, Mississippi,
dated March 3, 1847. Ibid.,
O, 586. On February 4, 1854, Maria filed the
emancipation deed from Isaac D. Hamilton, of Crawford County, Arkansas,
dated February 26, 1841. Ibid.,
R, 44-45.
