He desires that all of his just debts be paid out of his personal and real estate by his Executor, including the debt of “my good friends Gen’l J. B. Planche & Co. of New Orleans, for the sum of six thousand dollars with the interest accruing thereon, loaned to me to meet the debts due by A. Jackson Jnr., for the purchase of the Plantation, from Hiram G. Runnels, lying on the East bank of the River Mississippi in the State of Mississippi. Also a debt due by me of ten thousand dollars borrowed of my friends Blair and Rives, of the City of Washington and District of Columbia, with the interest accruing thereon being applied to the payment of the land bot. of Hiram G. Runnels as aforesaid, and for the faithful payment of the aforesaid recited debts, I hereby bequeath all my real and personal estate. After those debts are fully paid &c.”
After the before recited debts are fully paid, he gives to his adopted son Andrew Jackson, Junier, the tract of land “whereon I now live, known by the Hermitage, with all my negroes that I may die possessed of, with the except on hereinafter named, with all their increase, all household furniture, farming tools, stock of all kind, both on the Hermitage tract farms as well as those on the Mississippi plantation, and his heirs forever.”
To his beloved granddaughter, Rachel Jackson, daughter of A. Jackson, Jr., and Sarah, his wife, he gives several negroes (conveyance theretofore deposited with wife of Andrew Jackson, Jr.), and to his beloved grandson Andrew Jackson, son of A. Jackson, Jr., he gives a negro boy named “Ned, son of Blacksmith Aaron and Hannah his wife”; to his grandson, Samuel Jackson, he gives “one negro boy Davy or George, son of Squire and his wife Gincy.”
To Sarah Jackson, wife of his adopted son, Andrew Jackson, of whom he speaks in very affectionate terms, “I hereby recognize by this bequest, the gift I made her on her marriage, of the negro girl Gracy which I bought for her, ... as her maid and seamster with her increase, and my house servant Hannah, and her two daughters, ... to her and her heirs forever.” “This gift and bequest is made for my great affection for her; as a memento of her uniform attention to me, and kindness on all occasions, and particularly when worn down with sickness, pain and debility, she has been more than a daughter to me and I hope she will never be disturbed in the enjoyment of this gift, and bequest by any one.”
To his nephew, Andrew J. Donelson, he gives “the elegant sword presented to me by the State of Tennessee,” with an injunction.
To his grandnephew, Andrew Jackson Coffee, “I bequeath the elegant sword presented to me by the Rifle Company of New Orleans, commanded by Capt Beal, as a memento of my regard and to bring to his recollection the gallant services of his deceased father Genl. John Coffee in the late Indian and British war under my command, and his gallant conduct in defence of New Orleans in 1814 and 1815, with this injunction, that he wield it in the protection of the rights secured to the American citizen under our glorious constitution, against all invaders whether foreign foes or intestine traitors.”
To his grandson, Andrew Jackson, “the sword presented to me by the citizens of Philadelphia, with this injunction, that he will always use it in defence of the constitution of our glorious union, and the perpetuation of our republican system—remembering the motto ‘draw me not without occasion nor sheath me without honor!’”
“The pistols of Genl. Lafayette which was presented by him to Genl. George Washington and by Col. Wm. Robertson presented to me, I bequeath to George Washington Lafayette as a memento of the illustrious personages thro whose hands they have passed, his father and the father of his Country.”
“The gold box presented to me by the Corporation of the City of New York—the large silver vase presented to me by the Ladies of Charleston, South Carolina, my native State, with the large picture representing the unfurling of the American banner, presented to me by the Citizens of South Carolina, when it was refused to be accepted by the United States Senate, I leave in trust to my son A. Jackson Jnr. with directions that should our happy Country not be blessed with peace, an event not always to be expected, he will at the close of the war or end of the conflict, present each of said articles of inestimable value, to that patriot residing in the City or State from which they were presented who shall be adjudged by his Countrymen, or the Ladies, to have been the most valient in defence of his Country and our Country’s rights.”
To General Robert Armstrong he bequeaths his case of pistols and sword worn by himself throughout his military career.