LUCRETIA TAYLOR was my aunt, my mother's sister. Her maiden name was LUCRETIA DORTON. My mother's name was SALLY WOODS.

My mother is dead: my father is dead. My mother had nine children. The oldest was named MARGARET and she died single and unmarried. The next was LILBOURNE. He is dead. He left eleven children to the best of my recollection. They are all living.

The names of his children are: LOUCINDA, WADE, FELIX, ANN, SALLY, MARY, JOSEPH, JOHN, PLEASANT, CHARITY. These are all that I remember.

JAMES WOODS is the next child of my mother. LOUCRETIA ROBERT'S is the next child: Her husband's name is ELHANAN ROBERTS.

WILLIAM WOODS is the next. The next is myself, CHARITY MCCRARY. My husband is GEORGE MCCRARY.

The next is MOSES WOODS. The next is NANCY REDMAN, her husband's name is GEORGE REDMAN. The next is ELIZABETH WOODS.

My mother has been dead four years last June. She was living at the time she died, at brother JAMES WOODSES in this county. She had lived for the last ten years before she died; about seven years at sister BETSY'S and for awhile at brother LIL WOODSES and about among her children.

I have heard that she made a deed of conveyance of her interest in LOUCRETIA TAYLOR'S estate to JAMES WOODS. But I never saw it. I understood that she had previously made one to LILBOURNE WOODS. But I never saw that. I don't know about how long it was been since it was said that she made the deed to JAMES WOODS but my best areccollection is that it was about seven years since; it may have been longer, than that; it's just as I keep it in my head. I have no record of it before me.

After the deed was made; she lived at JAMES WOODSES. She knit and spun for him. Some of her clothing was given to her by the children around.

While my mother was staying at JAMES WOODSES, I visited there frequently. So far as JAMES was able, he treated her as well as he was able to treat her but he was not able to treat her as well as an old woman aught to have been treated.

I think that her labor was worth more than the attention that he paid to her. I mean that her labor was worth what clothing he furnished her and what provisions he furnished her never had any understanding from JAMES WOODS about any distribution of my mother's estate that was coming to her from LOUCRETIA TAYLOR'S estate.

JAMES WOODS, during the time mother lived with him was very poor. He had a small family. Mother spun and knit for him with her work, they got provisions, such things that the family wanted to live upon.

I was not present when mother died. I was there the next morning. She was in mighty bad condition when I got there, she was laying there covered up in the bed with very bad clothing on her.

The next morning of her death, one of JAMES WOODSES son's came and told us about her death. I live from them between three and four miles. JAMES WOODS and his wife was there when I got there but they were not there when she died.

There was not any person present when she died but two little children. I know it, his sons told it to the nearest neighbor and JAMES WOODS said that he was not there when he died. JAMES WOODS said that he had rented a piece of ground from Mr. HUNTER (HORTON?) and that he was over there staying when she died. He said that his wife was with him.

I think it was between one mile and half of one mile from where JAMES left his mother and where he was at when one of the children that was left with his mother was between eight and nine years old and the other was between twelve and thirteen years old. That is my arecollection of their ages. The youngest was a girl, the eldest a boy. There was no other person at the house at the time she died.

JAMES WOODS told me that he had left home himself in the morning and that his wife left in the evening before mother died. Neither of the children left was able to cook or prepare any nourishment. I suppose they would be a little company to her, that was all.

I don't know exactly my mother's age at that time but she was somewhere in seventy or eighty years old. It was about three weeks before that, since I saw mother. She had been down to see her youngest daughter Betsy, between one mile and one mile and a quarter and had went back to JAMES WOODSES and was in very bad health. She was not able to hardly get about.

From that time to her death, I did not even receive any notice from JAMES WOODS or any of his family of her being worse. When I saw her in bed, she was in bad condition; had on bad clothing, a man's coat. It was in June in warm weather.

There was not any doctor called in to examine her after she was dead. I learned from the family that there was not any person with her but the girl child and she did not know when she died. I heard JAMES WOODS say that they had not called in any physician to attend on her during her sickness.

I learned from the family that she had just got through with supper and was taken with a chill and laid down and told the boy to cover her up and she put that coat on to warm her and she told the boy to make her some tea but when he got it done, she was so far gone she could not drink it.

Cross examined by JAMES WOODSES by attorney.

I am the wife of GEORGE McCRARY.

JAMES WOODS told me that there was no person present except the two little children spoken of about when mother died. One of them was present but the other had run off to tell him before she was dead.

JAMES WOODS never said anything in that conversation about her taking sick and dying suddenly. DAVID WOODS, the son of JAMES WOODS, went after the burial clothing and got a part of them at H.L. Whites and part of them from Mr. Potter.

While mother was living at JAMES WOODS' I did not take spinning there for Mrs. H. L. White and receive the pay for it. I did not for anybody except myself. I took spinning there for myself and paid mother for it.

I heard the children say that they got supper the night mother died. I heard JAMES'S son say that he went by grandaddy LEWIS' and his wife picked a mess of lettuce and sent to her for her supper. I don't think that the two children and old lady was sufficient to cook for themselves and the old landy blind at that.

Questions: If SALLY WOODS and the two children were unable to cook the meals they eat, why do you say that the labor of SALLY WOODS was worth her board and clothing?

Becaus she was sick and not able to do anyting at the time.

Question: Did SALLY WOODS, your mother, know just how poor a man JAMES WOODS was at the time she deeded him interest in the LUCRETIA TAYLOR estate to him to let him live with during her natural life?

Yes, she knowed how poor he was.

Question: Do you know of any heirs sending for JAMES WOODS to come and get his mother and take to his house?

No sir. I don't know anything about it.

Question: Do you not know that MOSES WOODS put her out of his house and JAMES WOODS went and hauled her home in the night?

I don't know that MOSES WOODS did. I hear JIM and his wife say that MOSES WOODS wife and fell out with her. I know of JAMES WOODS having hauled her closet to BETSY WOODS' and of having hauled her away.

I don't know of BETSY WOODS having sent for JAMES to take her away. I told the other children that I was willing to allow JAMES WOODS something out of my part of the estate provided he ? and it and would settle without knowing about.

And further deponent saith not. CHARITY X MCCRARY

Also the deposition of BETSY WOODS taken at the same time and place and in the action mentioned in the caption.

I am the daughter of SALLY WOODS and her youngest child and LOUCRETIA TAYLOR is my aunt. I am sister of JAMES WOODS a party to this action. I do not know the age of SALLY WOODS when she died; she was quite an old and feeble woman.

I was not present to when she died. I was there the next morning. I got there was the sun was about an half an hour high. She was covered up in a bed with a mans coat on. She was dead when I got there.

I lived from them about one and a half miles. When I got there JAMES WOODS and his wife was there. James Woods said that he was not there when she died that he had went off to his work and had told his wife to come to him in the evening, that he did not think that his mother was dangerous.

I had not seen my mother for ten days before she died. She left my house ten days before. My mother was in bad condition when she left my house. She had a bad sore leg. She had hurt it on coming to my house and it had inflamed. She had been at my house about four weeks at that time. She walked to JAMES WOODS' from my house. My little girl went a part of the way with her.

JAMES WOODS knew that she had to hurt. He came down to see her once or twice while she was at my house. Myself and children waited on and attended to her while she was at my house. Nothing was furnished her by JAMES WOODS while she was at my house. James Woods did not send any physician to attend to her while she was at my house. He did not offer nor bring any conveyance? for her while she was there to take her home that I know of.

I was present at the time mother made a deed to James Woods conveying her interest in LOUCRETIA TAYLORS estate to him. Before that deed was made, my mother had been living with me for seven years. She had previously made a conveyance of the same interest to LILBOURN Woods, one of her sons. Someone told her that Lilbourn was a going to make way with it and pay a debt he owed to John Gilbert. She then deeded it to James Woods.

I don't remember exactly who it was that did tell her before she made the deed she had been up to James Woods' and had come back to my house and after she came back, Miss Robert came and afterwards James Woods came and he went after Mr. Reed to write the deed is my best recollection. At that time mother was easly controlled and influenced by her children. She was a weak minded old lady at the time she lived at brother Jims, after the deed was made, I contributed some to her support.

I was poor like brother James and could not do much. At the time she left my house, ten days before her death, she was not in a condition to be left alone with small children.

Cross-examined by James Woodses attorney

Both stayed at James Woods mostly after the time she made the deed to her death. She passed back and forward to my house and brother James. I told the other heirs that it was right to pay brother James something for taking care of her.

I heard that Moses Woods' wife and her had a falling out and I suppose she drove her off. Further his deponant saith not.

Betsy X Woods

August 5, 1874