Margarett Summers petitions for a separate maintenance from her estranged husband, Elijah Summers. The two were married for ten years and had four children. She informs the court that, at the time of her marriage, "she was in comfortable circumstances, being possessed of a negro boy now worth Seven hundred dollars, of a bed and furniture and every thing else necessary for the ease comfort and convenience of a person in her situation;" she discloses that said Elijah "at the time of their intermarriage was in indigent circumstances." Margarett asserts that her husband treated her with cruelty and engaged in "an habitual practice of intercourse of an improper and shameful kind with lewd and profligate women immediately in the settlement of your Oratrix." While Margarett was sick in bed, her husband came in and demanded that she work; when she refused, he pulled her from the bed and threw the bed outside. He finally left her sick in bed, taking all his possessions and their children. She has not been allowed to see her children since that time. He has sold much of his property, and Margarett fears that he will leave the state. Margarett Summers asks that Elijah Summers be compelled to provide a reasonable support for her, that she be granted custody of the children, and that he provide support for the children.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
