convert the personal estate of the deceased into
money, for the purpose of paying debts, the
negroes must not be sold, until all the other
goods and chattels have been disposed of; when
that is not sufficient, then so many of the negroes,
as will make up the deficiency; the remaining
negroes are to be surrendered in specie
to the representatives, in part of their distributive
shares, for so much as they were valued in
the inventory; when it happens that the negroes
to be distributed are less in number than
the representatives, or that through other circumstances
no equal division can be made, the
common practice is, for the several representatives,
either to draw lots for such negroes, on
refunding a rateable part, where it exceeds
their share, or to set them up at publick vendue;
in which last case, if they sell for more
than they were valued at in the inventory,
the gain is theirs equally and if they sell
for less, the loss is theirs also; for the administrator
having no prospect of advantage from
such sale, ought not to bear the loss of it.