Hardy Doyle seeks a divorce from his wife, Betsy S. Lamkin Doyle, who is possessed of "a turbulent & Tyrannical disposition." Doyle declares that his wife's behavior resulted in her being "excluded from decent society & [she] soon became the companion of whores & whoremongers of the most abandoned character ... amongst whom were free negroes & mulattoes (I blush to tell it)," whom she "invited and entertained ... at her house against my instructions." He further discloses that on one occasion "she became desperately angry and enraged against some person" and "she armed herself with a pistol in one hand and a Butcher Knife in the other ... [and] paraded through the streets, traversing the town from side to side searching her antagonist cursing & swearing most profanely & loudly using every profane oath & expression of abuse of which she could think." Being "so unfortunate as to be united to a woman who is lost to every feeling of humanity, religion & morality," the petitioner "does believe that you will be of opinion that she is not qualified to have the care of his family -- that you will not be deaf, but will hear his prayer to be released from those bands of iron which once seemed to be the silken chains of Hymen but now most miserably transformed."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
