Through her next friend, Polly Gray seeks "some adequate support" from James Gray, her husband of thirty years. Charging that he is guilty of many offenses, the petitioner laments that he "has now for several years past pursued a system of conduct towards her cruel & tyrannical in the extreme;" that he "has for about six or seven years been continually in the habit of deserting the caresses of a fond & affectionate wife to whom he was bound by way ... of religion morality & law;" that he has "committed the worst open conjugal infidelities with prostitutes of the most abandoned order;" and that he "has taken to the very house in which they resided ... -- a wretch whose very colour is as sable as her crimes" and who "assails her with reproaches & insults which would be insufferable even from one more respectable." Forced to abandon their home, Polly notes that at the time of their marriage James was very poor and that she brought to the marriage a number of slaves, who "now with their increase" number sixteen or seventeen. Polly Gray prays that the court will secure to her a provision, "which security becomes ... necessary as the said James Gray is daily wasting and squandering on harlots those possessions which should be preserved for the comfort & support of your unfortunate oratrix."
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
