Rice Family Newsletter

Rice/Crew Marriage
"Blessed" with
Love and Lawsuit

INTRODUCTION

What follows is the beginning of a five-part series dealing with the family of Sarah Rice and Walter Crew of Hanover County, Virginia, and Salem, Iowa. Sarah is a daughter of William and Mary (Crenshaw) Rice. Your editor is in possession of correspondence and papers relating to this and allied families. We begin with the 1819 marriage of Sarah and Walter. It was an event not without its attendant difficulties, as the following letters and memoranda indicate.

UNDATED LETTER ADDRESSED TO W. M. CREW (APPARENTLY MICAJAH CREW, WALTER'S FATHER) FROM CHARLES CRENSHAW, SARAH'S UNCLE.

Dear Sir:

About noon the day before yesterday I received the astonishing intelligence that Walter had gone up the country to be married to Sarah Rice. When I entrusted her to the care of your family and used as I supposed the friendly accommodation of Walter to attend her to Richmond my confidence in the safety of the course was unreserved.

Religion, that heavenly guardian of innocence, friendship, honor and confidence increasing their obligation were such walls of defense that her safety seemed to need no further security and my mind rested quiet. How sadly have I been betrayed. My detestation and abhorrence of Walter's conduct are inexpressible. I conceive that he has violated all the principles which I have mentioned in a base and treacherous manner.

I have therefore to request if the event should prove as report anticipated that you will make known to him my pointed objection to his coming to my house. Guilt takes a sneaking secret course in pursuit of its objects whilst conscious propriety fears not the light. Hence the privacy of this project by which an orphan is to be sacrificed and myself her vigilant friend distressed.

Accept my well-wishes
C. Crenshaw

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THE DISTRESSED MR. CRENSHAW OBVIOUSLY EXPANDED HIS COMPLAINTS AGAINST WALTER CREW IN A MEMO TO BLAIR RICE, SARAH'S BROTHER. THAT MEMO IS NOW LOST, BUT BLAIR COMMUNICATED THE CONTENTS TO WILLIAM RICE, HIS AND SARAH'S FATHER, AND ELICITED THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE.

Charlotte County December, 1819

Observations suggested by a perusal of the contents of the memo furnished Blair by his Uncle Charles on the subject of Sarah's marriage. "Astonishing intelligence" - "deplorable event" - "abominable idea" - "Providence interpose" - "sacrifice of Sarah."

These expressions seem calculated to make one forget for a moment the real state of things; and to imagine that Sarah had connected herself by marriage or otherwise to the veriest wretch in the community - to some drunkard, gambler or horse-thief - at least to some haughty, irascible, ill tempered man who was likely to consign her for life to the most abject and heart-broken slavery.

Surely none would infer from them the truth of the case, that she had married an affectionate, good-tempered and intelligent man; and whose character and connections in a moral point of view were unexceptionable.

"Advanced Years." Although a difference of age is generally deemed suit�able, yet it is admitted that a difference of 15 or 16 years is greater than is desirable. But this objection, considering the uncertain and transitory character of all human affairs, seems not entitled to great weight. I could mention several marriages which have taken place in this and the adjoining counties in which the difference of age in favour of the man was greater, and which proved as far as appearances could authorize an opinion to be among the happiest that I have known at all; and in some of which the senior was the surviving party. Indeed were the absence of every sort of objection on each side to be made a universal and indispensible requisite to matrimonial con�nections few if any would ever be formed.

"Not worth a cent." I do not in the least doubt that the memo contains the sentiments and opinions of the writer, but as the statements of W. Crew, who must possess more perfect knowledge on the subject and who is equally worthy of credit, are somewhat different, I am inclined to suppose there may be an unintentional error in the former. It is however known and admitted on all sides that he is not rich. But it is confidently believed that what they both possess added together will constitute an ample competency.

Poverty, that is the want of the real necessaries of life, is certainly an evil of considerable magnitude: But that our happiness is increased in a direct ratio to the dis�tance beyond a competency at which we are removed from this point, is an error too vulgar and palpable to be imputed to the author of the Memo. Equally un�friendly to human enjoyment is the opposite extreme. A situation in either would be as undesirable as a residence in the polar or equanoxial regions of the earth. Hagar's prayer "give me neither poverty nor riches" seems to have proceeded from a perfect knowledge of the real condition of human affairs.

"Superior standing" - "reception here flattering."
Without being understood to adopt fully the sentiments of the Memo in regard to rank and standing, I would observe that here also Sarah enjoyed the respect and friendship of every acquaintance male and female whose respect and friend�ship were worth possessing and that since her return she has unhesitatingly withdrawn her hand from several persons; one of whom would have been rejected by few ladies in this part of the country and would very probably have met the approbation of her Uncle Charles. This and other circumstances evinced a strength and steadiness of attachment which was not to be lightly opposed.

Having no agency in the events, or control over the circumstances which led to this attachment, it remained only for me to decide from the best views I could take of the probable results whether I ought to consent to her marriage or in�terpose my authority to prevent it. And I freely acknowledge that had my views and sentiments in the whole subject been very different from what they were, I should have been extremely unwilling to incur the responsibility for all the consequences immediate and remote of such an interposition.

On the whole it appears not improbable that S., who has happily never been smitten with an ardent love of splendour and distinction, has judged better for herself than any of her friends could have judged for her. It is by no means presumed that the preceding observation will obviate the objections which exist in the mind of Mr. Crenshaw to Sarah's marriage, even if he read them at all; but the subject was interesting; I was at lei�sure; and some explanation of the views and principles of my own conduct seemed due to myself.

~ William Rice

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FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM A REPORT PREPARED BY LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES EN�GAGED BY MICAJAH CREW AND SON TO ACT FOR THEM IN A CASE WHICH APPARENTLY GREW OUT OF CHARLES CRENSHAW'S ANGER OVER THE MARRIAGE OF SARAH RICE AND WALTER CREW.

In performing the duties consequent to the trust conferred upon us by the act of Micajah Crew and son relative to the settlement of their affairs we have unavoidably been led into a legal contention with Charles Crenshaw. We are not surprised to hear of his honoring us with a liberal use of those polite epithets in which he has long become eminently fluent in his paroxysms of rage. All this might well be passed over in silent pity for the torture he sustains from such scalding effusions of spleen and malignity. They have been habitually indulged till perhaps he has lost all power to curb the violence of their eruptions. But as his representations of facts are calculated to create erroneous impressions of the merits of the subject and perverted views of our conduct in the business, we deem it at least excusable to correct their tendency with a simple relation of the leading circumstances of the case both before and since it was our misfortune to be placed in contact with him.

[Here, the report explains the circumstances surrounding a $5000 loan made by Charles Crenshaw to Micajah Crew. The report states that it was privately but clearly understood that the loan was for an extensive period of time.]

The report continues:

About ten months after the transaction alluded to was closed Charles Crenshaw gave Micajah Crew notice that the whole sum due him must be immediately paid or he would require the trustees of the deed to him to proceed to sell the property without delay. It was alleged as the reason of this precipitate resolution that Walter Crew the son of Micajah Crew had married Sarah Rice, his niece, contrary to his wishes and that he had cause to believe the said Walt�er's father and all his family had clandestinely promoted the connection. What the ground of his belief was he has not thought proper to state.

We leave him to prove the justice of his resentment against Walter Crew to the world after making the short observation that Sarah Rice had a father of high respectability concerned for her welfare who gave his free consent to the mea�sure. Charles' affection for his niece we admit must have been excessively ardent or it could not have been susceptible of wound so deep as has manifest�ed itself in the wonderful tender manner in which he has since totally cast her off to the mercy of whatever destiny may await her.

[The report here goes on to detail Micajah Crew's fruitless efforts to raise the money required by Charles Crenshaw, as well as the equally fruitless eff�orts of others to persuade Mr. Crenshaw to change his course. Mr. Crenshaw persisted, however, and actually had Mr. Crew's land and mills advertised for sale without the signature of one of the trustees, Mr. James Pleasants. The report concludes:]

About ten days after the sale of the property had been advertised Micajah Crew mentioned the fact of his having paid Charles Crenshaw interest on the $5000 for some time before he borrowed it. Tarlton W. Pleasants, to whom he stated the circumstance with a view to get his opinion whether the return of interest ought not to be demanded, as the principal was so suddenly recalled contrary to promise, consulted a lawyer on the case who without hesitation pronounced the transaction palpably usurious.

The Pleasants and Fleming Bates being both large security creditors of the concern of M. Crew and Son, and feeling no doubt excited by Charles Crenshaw's ungenerous and violent course of conduct, determined to write him a notice of their knowledge of the circum�stances, and require him to relinquish the benefit of his deed of trust and place himself on an equal footing with the common creditors, stating at the same time that if he declined to do so, they would demand of us the trustees to resort to such measures of compulsion as the equity of the law afforded. C. Crenshaw made his election in favour of maintaining the advantage he held and they accordingly called upon us to interfere in the case. We have complied with their demand and time must determine the event.

Charles Crenshaw may thank the clemency of M. Crew that a greater degree of severity has not been exercised towards him. Not however by us, nor that we know of by any of the creditors, yet the unprecedented cruelty to an unoffending family, struggling as they were under the pressure of adversity and accumulated afflictions, would have pursued him with the utmost penalties of the law, had the man of all others from whom he had the least right to expect mercy consented to the measure.

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In our next issue we will present some of the early correspondence between William Rice and his daughter,Sarah, and son-in-law Walt�er Crew. Among the most charming features of this correspondence is the dry wit which characterizes the letters of William Rice.