Catharine Ross seeks a divorce from her husband James. She informs the court that "in a very short time after the said marriage the said James commenced treating her with great harshness and neglect." She further notes that he finally "sent her away from him, against her consent, and without making any provision whatever for her support." Catharine asserts that when James discovered her plans to petition the court for a divorce and alimony he agreed to take her back, offering "to treat her with all the respect and kindness due to a wife." She confesses that she did "return to her said husband" and that despite his promise James has resumed his harsh treatment. Instead of placing her in his home, she reports that James "placed her in a miserable cabin with one room on the premises of his father remote from any other house, and also placed in the same cabin a family of negroes to live with her." The petitioner further complains that James gives her little attention and does not provide comforts "suitable to his estate and condition in life." She asks that she "be decreed to be divorced from the bed and board of her said husband" and that James be "compelled to make a proper provision for her support out of his estate."
Result: Dismissed.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
