Papers of John Adams, volume 16
Mr. Christian Ravenhorst, Lutheran pastor in Ebenezer, Georgia, passed away there several years ago, and his widow, Anne Barbarine Krafftin, died in the same place on 1 July 1779.3 By means of a joint will set up by those two, the husband bequeathed as a preference legacy the sum of 300 pounds sterling to his three sisters, residing in the dominions of His Prussian Majesty, and the wife stipulated the same legacy for her family domiciled in Ravensburg. The rest of the estate was to fall in equal portions to the heirs of each of the testators, with funds taken out for two legacies, each in the amount of 40 pounds sterling to be settled on religious missions in India, and on the orphanage in Halle. Messrs. Joseph Schubtrin and Jacob Waldhauer of Ebenezer were named testamentary executors, and in that capacity they took possession of all of the estate, as it appears from the letter they wrote dated 4 May 1780 to a woman named Marie Hoppin, residing in Daber in Pomerania, one of the sisters of the late Ravenhorst. According to their own declaration, the personal property of 101 the estate was taxed at the rate of 487 pounds and 19 shillings; there were 400 pounds in outstanding debts, the recovery of which was committed to the lawyers. In addition there was real estate in the amount of 1300 arpents4 of land, provisionally administered by the testamentary executors. During the turmoil of the American war the heirs received no news at all about the arrangements made regarding the estate; but the latest word is that Professor Freylinghausen, one of the directors of the orphanage in Halle, was just informed in a letter from Pennsylvania, that one of the executors, Mr. Schubtrin, has since passed away, and that the second, Mr. Waldhauer, was robbed by a band of thieves of all the ready money and of all the effects from the estate entrusted to his administration. Supposing that this event is attested to by legal proofs, the just claims of the heirs to the outstanding debts would continue to exist in their entirety, as the recovery does not seem to have taken place, much less so in the case of the real estate, the alienation of which was declared impossible during the course of the war. The interested party, Sophie Neumann, née Ravenhorst, residing in Berlin and sister of the deceased pastor in Georgia, has requested the protection of her sovereign, and it is in consequence of the orders of the king that the undersigned special envoy of His Majesty has been authorized to place the particulars of this case before Mr. Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at The Hague. He flatters himself that this minister will be so kind as to use his good offices to procure for the heirs an authentic copy of the will and of the inventory of the estate, and to make the necessary protests where it is pertinent in order that the executor is made to account for the proceeds of the estate, for the funds that he administered, and for the capital goods and real property whose liquidation might remain to be settled.