Thomas Butler v. Gabriel Duvall. Deposition of Thomas M. Gossum
Deposition of Thomas M. Gossum, taken by consent of parties to be read in evidence in a suit depending in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, in which Thos. Butler and Sarah his wife & others are Pltfs and Gabriel Duvall is defdt.
To the first interrogatory, he answers and says; I know them and they were the slaves of John Dells, (for that is the way he spelled his name)
To the 2nd Do. he answers & says: I knew him very well, he lived when I first knew him in Maryland, either in Montgomery County or near Elk-Ridge I think, from there he moved into George Town in the District of Columbia; but at what time precisely he lived in each place I do not recollect, but it must have been more than thirty years ago.
To the 3rd Do. he answers & says: He did move into Virginia from George Town D.C. and lived two years with my Father Thomas Gossum, and bro't with him the said slaves Thos. Butler & wife Sarah and their two children, & he hired them to my Father for the two years he lived with him. But at what period that was I can not now remember exactly, but it was twenty odd or thirty years ago.
To the 4th Do. he answers & says: I think he did sell them while he lived in Virginia, and as Mr. Dells told me to a man named Duvall in Maryland, but when I can not exactly say, but it was during the time he lived with my Father, which as I have before said was twenty odd or thirty years ago.
To the 5th Do he answers & says: I can not answer more distinctly than I have before said.
To the first Cross Interrogatory, he answers & says: I do not know him, & never saw him to know him.
To the 2d Do. he answers & says, I knew him while he lived in Maryland either in Montgomery County or near Elk-Ridge I do not exactly know which, before he moved to Geo. Town, & that he moved into George Town from his residence in Maryland, but I can not recollect the time of his removal.
To the 3rd Do he answers & says: I knew him when he lived with Christian Getzendanner. but can not recollect the year.
To the 4th Do. he answers & says: Yes he did, and had Tom with him in George Town I know, but I do not remember whether Sarah was with him there or not.
To the 5th Do. he answers and says: I do not know that he did at any time hire them to Getzendanner.
To the 6th Do he answers and says: I do not know.
To the 7th Do. he answers and says; He moved from Maryland to George Town and thence to Virginia and from Virginia he move to Alexandria D.C. where he died. But how long it was after he lived with Getzendanner that he removed to Virginia, or whether he came immediately from Getzendanner's to V.a. I do not recollect.
To the 8th do. he answers and says, I knew him when he kept a grocery store in George Town, but do not remember the year; it was however before he came to Virginia.
To the 9th do. he answers and says: I do not know the years, nor the duration of his residence in either place.
To the 10th do he answers and says: I can say with certainty that he removed into Virginia from George Town, after having lived in George Town, but I can not say when.
To the 11th do he answers and says: I am certain he brought with him the said slaves Tom Butler and his wife Sarah. and also their two children Lydia and Jane, into Virginia from George Town, but when he brought them I can not state more precisely than I have before said of his own removal.
To the 12th do. he answers and says; John Dells told me he sold them to one Duvall in Maryland, and I think that was whilst he lived in Virginia. he had previously sold the two children Lydia & Jane. and their daughter Sally who was born while they were in Virginia, was sold as I understood with her parents. I know nothing of the particulars of the sale, nor who was present at it.
To the 13th do. he answers and says: I never knew that he was a tenant of a Mr. or Mrs. Thompson at all. I have often heard him speak, whilst he lived at my Father's of a Mr. Kennedy, but never knew he had been his tenant.
To the 14th do he answers and says: I knew him when he lived with Flaut & Getzendanner, both in George Town, but how long ago it was I can not say more accurately than I before stated as to his residence in George Town. I never knew that he lived at all with Wm. Duvall.
To the 15th do. he answers & says: I recollect he owned them during the time he lived in George Town, of course when he lived both with Flaut and Getzendanner. but know nothing of his hiring them out.
I R Mason justice of the peace for the County of Fairfax in the State of Virginia, do hereby certify that Thomas M. Gossum personally appeared before me at his own dwelling in said county, and after being sworn according to law made the foregoing answers to the several interrogatories & cross interrogatories respectively. having then propounded to him separate and
apart from any other witness and without the presence of any attorney or agent either of the petitioners or defendants, or for the abolition society.
Given under my hand and seal this 1st day of April 1831.
R Mason (seal)
