Petition #21683340

Abstract

A. D. Williams, proprietress of a successful milliner's business in Petersburg, seeks a divorce from her husband, Henry Williams, "alias Hiram Whyte." She complains that about six months into their 1820 marriage, Henry "ceased to labour" and has "spent his time in idleness, frivolous amusements & the worst species of dissipation." He has indulged in "adulterous intercourse, with the lowest class of females & of all colours," and "frequently absented himself" from their home; on one occasion, he "started ostensibly to go to the Races near Richmond, but he was absent for four years." He has cruelly beat and abused her, gambled away her "hard earnings," and twice given her a venereal disease. Most recently, he has been living in "open adultery" with "one of the black population of this Town," a woman named Betsy Elbeck. Fearing that her savings will be "forcibly [w]rested from her by him," she asks for a divorce and for permission "to hold the property heretofore acquired by her own exertions, as a feme sole." Lengthy depositions are rich with detail about Henry Williams "gambling & frolicking, drinking & carousing."

Result: Granted pro confesso.

4 people are documented within petition 21683340

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Citation information

Repository: Circuit Court Clerk's Office, Petersburg, Virginia

Subjects