Polly Gardner represents that she married James W. Gardner some twelve to fifteen years ago and that shortly after said marriage her husband received "from the estate of her mother, by virtue of the right of your oratrix, two or three likely young negroes," which he promptly converted to cash toward the purchase of a farm. The first years of marriage were lived in "comparative peace and harmony." But a few years later, James "commenced a very improper and reprehensible intercourse with certain females of loose habits, whom he subsequently settled on his plantation, with in a few hundred yards of his dwelling house, and by whom he has had several children." Polly confides that, besides his infidelities, the said James beat and abused her, forcing her in 1832 to flee to the home of friends with her six children. Although James Gardner seduced her back with promises of reform, he soon resumed his abusive behavior; eventually he was fined and put in prison for an especially brutal beating and she made "her escape in the night." Polly Gardner now seeks a "separate maintenance" for herself and her children out of her husband's "ample" estate. In an 1841 amended petition, she seeks a divorce "with a separate maintenance for herself and children out of his estate" and a restraining order to prevent her husband from squandering his estate until the suit has been settled.
Result: Granted; dismissed.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
