Petition #20984302

Abstract

Elizabeth Tinges married her husband, William Tinges, twelve or thirteen years ago. She claims that "in order to induce her to enter in to the said contract of Marriage She was basely and wickedly imposed upon, and made the victim of a most outrageous fraud." After being married she learned that her husband, "instead of being a white man is a mulatto and in reality had been born a slave." She says that all her acquaintances have shunned her, believing that she knew he was a mulatto all along and did not care. When she approached William Tinges with her discovery, she was met with "brutal invective and evasion." She claims that he treats her cruelly, frequently becomes inebriated, and is "a visitor of houses of ill fame and other places of infamy and disgrace." Elizabeth Tinges asks the court to subpoena William Tinges and to issue a divorce decree. In his answer, William Tinges counters that his wife knew he was a mulatto and that, in fact, she told him before their marriage that he was "White enough for her."

2 people are documented within petition 20984302

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Citation information

Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland

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