State of South Carolina}
Kershaw District       } Personally appeared before me T.J. Withers one of
the Judges of said State, and in Term presiding Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas and general Sessions, James Chesnut and Thomas Whitaker who
are personally known to me, and who did acknowledge and declare that they
and each of them Signed and Sealed the foregoing Indenture for all the
purposes therein contained, I do further certify that this acknowledgement
is taken at Camden within the limits of the Jurisdiction of the said Court
and that the same is a Court Record.
  In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first
day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
fifty four
  T.J. Wither                                  James Chesnut
one of the law Judges                          Thos. Whitaker
of South Carolina

State of South Carolina}
  Kershaw District     } I, M. Naudin Clerk of the Court of
Common Pleas and general Sessions for the District in the State aforesaid
do hereby certify that the Honorable T.J. Withers whose signature in his own
hand writing is Subscribed to the preceeding certificate, was at the date thereof
one of the law Judges of the said State, and in Term a presiding Judge of the
Court aforesaid, for the District aforesaid, duly commissioned and qualified
               In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed
my seal of office, to wit the seal of said court this first day of April in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty four, and
in the 78th year of the Independence of the United States of America
                                          M. Naudin  CCP & G.S.
State of South Carolina Kershaw Dis
                                         Recorded Apl 12th 1854
                                            Robt Youngblood
                                                           Clk
State of South Carolina Kershaw District
            In the name of God Amen
                                       I Ellen Chesnut widow
of the late John Chesnut deceased, do make and ordain this to be my
last Will and testament, that is to say,
1st The Negroes which I received from the estate of my Brother
William Whitaker, with their present and future issue and increase,
and also all the Negroes, which I brought into coverture, together
with their present and future issue and increase, to which under the
will and testament of my said Husband, I shall again become
entitled at the division of his estate, I give and bequeath unto my
Six children, to wit: Serena Haile, the wife of Thomas E. Haile,
Mary Whitaker Chesnut, Ellen Chesnut, Thos W. Chesnut, James
Chesnut, and John Chesnut, Equally to be divided among them, Share
and share alike, the Share hereby given to each of my Daughters, to be held
by her, to her own Seperate use and behoof, not Subject or liable to the
debts and contracts of her present or future Husband, during the term of
her natural life, and from and immediately after her death to the heirs
of her body, living at the time of her death, but if she should die without