In 1796, with the consent of her guardian and her mother, Anna Whiting of Gloucester, Virginia, married John Pryor, a Richmond man, who a related document reveals was considerably older than herself. According to John Pryor, he lived happily with his wife until June 1810, when an immigrant French teacher named Charles Fremon was introduced to his house "by means of some young Gentlemen students who rented certain rooms and small houses" from Pryor. Soon Pryor discovered that Fremon and his wife were having an illicit relationship and Pryor feared that the pair plotted to kill him in order to get married. Shortly after the affair was discovered, Anna Pryor "voluntarily prepared to leave the house and protection" of her husband "under the pretence of going to her sister's in Gloucester County, whereupon" Pryor "was induced to give her two negroes, and money to bear her expences to her supposed place of destination." Pryor claims that he was prepared to continue supporting his wife if she had indeed gone to her stated destination, but he discovered that, instead of going to her sister's, Anna and her lover took the slaves and journeyed to Charleston, Savannah, and "whither farther." Now far advanced in years, Pryor asks for a divorce.
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
