Circuit Court of the U.S.
for the 7th Circuit & District of Michigan
Thornton Timberlake
vs.
Josiah Osborn
Jefferson Osborn
Ellison Osborn
David T. Nicholson
Ishmael Lee
William Jones
Ebenezer McIlvain}
This suit having been this day settled upon the condition that the same is to be discontinued on the part of the Plaintiff without any judgement for costs in said cause being taken or entered either for the said Plaintiff, or the above named Defendants or any of them. Therefore it is hereby stipulated and agreed by and between the Said Plaintiff, and David T. Nicholson and Ishmael Lee two of the Defendants in the above entitled Cause, as follows: First the said Plaintiff is to discontinue said cause on or before the first day of the Next term of said Court. Secondly, said suit is not again to be instituted agains the last above named Defendants: Thirdly that no judgement fo costs in said cause is to be taken or entered either for the said Plaintiff or the said defendants in said cause or either of them.
Dated at Cassopolis Michigan this third day of December A.D. 1851
In presence of [?] Kingsbury
Pratt & Crary
Attorneys for Plff. [Plaintiff]
D.T. Nicholson
Ishmael Lee
Settlement between Thornton Timberlake (slaveholder) and Josiah Osborn, et. al, in Thornton Timberlake v. Josiah Osborn, et al. National Archives Identifier: 12562895.
In January 1849, slaveholders Thornton Timberlake, John and Milton Graves, and Charles Scott all filed penalty cases under the 1793 federal Fugitive Slave Act against Michigan abolitionists who helped freedom seekers to elude recapture. The trial began in December 1850, only to end in a mistrial in January 1851.
A retrial began in December 1851, but most defendants opted out. The Michigan farmers were still struggling to pay the $2,200 in legal fees incurred during the first trial. Instead of enduring another trial, Ishmael Lee (whose farm the freedom seekers stayed at after their release by McIlvain) and David T. Nicholson agreed to settle with the enslavers out of court; hence why Lee and Nicholson's signatures appear at the bottom of the document. Lee and Nicholson paid the slaveholders' counsel, Abner Pratt, a total of $1,000, plus $300-500 for legal costs. Cass County abolitionists had started a subscription to pay off their legal fees, though it remains unclear how much of the cost Lee and Nicholson shouldered alone.