Animals as Assets: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Animals”

William Weir’s Will and Livestock as Significant Assets

William Weir: 1751-1787 (Maternal Fourth Great-Grandfather)
Samuel Miller Weir: 1769-1830 (Maternal Third Great-Grandfather)

 

I am always fascinated with wills and probate records when I discover them. They can provide amazing and important details about the lives of ancestors and the things that were important to them. Animals are often mentioned in wills, especially in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wills. In that era, animals were significant assets—not just in terms of their financial value, but also in terms of their being a means of survival as they were sources of food and labor. The distribution of these assets was critically important to heirs. The will of William Weir includes reference to a variety of animals, which were distributed among his children and his widow, including the animals given to my husband’s third-great-grandfather, Samuel Miller Weir.

William Weir was an Irish immigrant who settled in the area of Fishing Creek in Chester County, South Carolina. He fought in the Revolutionary War, and he and his wife, Susannah Miller Weir, had three sons and seven daughters over two decades. It is believed that William Weir was born in 1751, which meant that his first son, William, was born when he was only sixteen. It also would mean that William was only thirty-six years old at his death. (Note: I have found no verification of his birthdate, so I suspect he may actually have been older.) He died in 1787.

Plat map of Fishing Creek SC circa 1800, with Weir properties marked in red

William’s will opens with him stating that he was “Very Sick and Weak in Body but of Perfect Mind and Memory”, so obviously he had some serious illness and was aware he was unlikely to recover. Despite the severity of his condition, he set out a very precise, detailed distribution of his assets.

The significant sections read as follows:

“First I do give to My Well Beloved Son William Weer one Bay Mare and two Cows Which he is in Possession of.

Next I do give to My Well Beloved Daughter Elizabeth Weer her Bead & furniture With three head of cows Which is in My Son William's Care with her Saddel.

Next I do give My Well Beloved Son Samuel Weer three hundred acres of Land Which is lying & being on the Waters of Tager River & the Dunn horse and out of the above Lands he is to pay the Sum of twenty pounds into the hands of the Executors of this present Will.

Next I do give to My Well beloved Wife Susena her bed and furniture With an Equal part of the following property which is to be Equally Divided between My Said Wife and My Son James and My Daughters Susana, Augnas, Margaret, Janet, and Ann Which is to consist of the Plantation Where I Now Live with the Live Stock of horses, Cows, Hogs & Household furniture With My Plantation tools and What Moneys May be Due me and the twenty pounds Which is to be paid by My Son Samuel and all the above is to be Equaly Divided Amongest the persons above Directed after they pay all My Debts out of the whole Sum…”

As we can see, he provides each of his heirs with animals. His eldest son William receives a “Bay Mare” and two cows. Daughter Elizabeth receives “three head of cows” and a saddle, so presumably she already had a horse. My husband’s ancestor, Samuel Weir, received a “Dunn horse” along with three hundred acres of land.

Transcription of William Weir will...

The remaining assets were to be divided amongst William’s wife Susanna and the younger children—James, Susanna, Agnes, Margaret, Janet and Ann. The assets included “the Live Stock of horses, Cows, Hogs…”

So from this will, we can deduce that William Weir had a plantation comprising buildings, land, crops and livestock. The livestock included several horses, a herd of cattle, and hogs. He made sure that all his heirs received some of the livestock, helping to set them up to survive in South Carolina. The cattle would have provided milk, and the cattle and hogs provided meat. Horses were work animals, critical for pulling farm equipment to enable planting and harvesting of crops as well as providing a means of transportation. In addition, any or all the livestock could be sold to get money if necessary. William and others of his generation saw animals as essential means to build security and wealth in a new nation.

 

Sources:

South Carolina Will Transcripts, 1782-1868; Author: Wates, Wylma Anne; Probate Place: Chester, South Carolina. Ancestry.com.

https://www.rootsandrecall.com/chester/buildings/greater-fishing-creek-heritage-plat-map/