Case Name: STEPHEN ELLIS and ROBERT ELZEY v. PETER G. WOOTTEN
Court: Delaware Court of Chancery
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1821-07-25
Citations: 2 Del. Cas. 625
Docket Number: 
Parties: STEPHEN ELLIS and ROBERT ELZEY v. PETER G. WOOTTEN.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Cases
Volume: 2
Pages: 625–626

Head Matter:
STEPHEN ELLIS and ROBERT ELZEY v. PETER G. WOOTTEN.
Court of Chancery. Sussex.
July 25, 1821.
Ridgely’s Notebook III, 390.
Hall and Robinson for complainants.
Cooper and Wells for defendant. .

Opinion:
The Chancellor,
finding this to be a question of fact, offered to the parties to make an issue to be tried by a jury. The parties refused, and submitted the case to him.
The Chancellor.
The bill must be dismissed. This is a bond given [for] the purchase money for a negro woman. The plaintiff contends the woman was never delivered to him, and that therefore the bond is without consideration. The testimony [of] James Wootten, confirmed by Hasting, Ellis and Culleny, clearly proves a delivery. The woman consented to go with him. He left her of his own accord to borrow a cart to remove her and the child and her chest and bed; before he returned she ran away. It was his folly to leave her. The woman deceived him, but the seller fully complied with his undertaking.