Mary M. Clarke seeks an end to her fourteen-year-marriage. She informs the court that she married William Clarke on 5 August 1847 when she "was only Seventeen years of age" and when she "was the owner by inheritance from her father & brother of eleven likely negroes ... and a large amount of money." Clarke charges that the said William "has Squandered all of said money and sold & had taken off twelve likely negroes a portion, the increase & a portion a part of said eleven negroes aforesaid." She further laments "that he has been for years running about drinking, gambling, & neglecting his family." Pointing out that she and William "have not lived together" for some time, the petitioner reveals that "she has been informed that in addition to his bad treatment of your Oratrix that he has been guilty of Adultery with Some woman or women." Clarke therefore prays that "the bonds of matrimony now subsisting between said Clarke & your Oratrix be dissolved ... and that she be restored to all the rights & priviledges of a single woman." She also requests that "upon the final hearing that the negroes be decreed to your Oratrix or some other Trustee for her & her children." Clarke returns to court in August 1861 to report that her husband tried to take "by force one of Complts children a little girl 6 years old" and to amend her earlier petition by requesting an injunction "injoining and prohibiting the Deft or any one else from disturbing her in the peacable & quiet possession of her little children."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
