Rebeccah Dykes seeks a divorce from James, her husband of over twenty years. She cites that they were happy for many years until James "without cause about fourteen months ago went to white county Tennessee under pretence of attinding to a part of an estate he said was coming to him from his unkle." Reporting that James is still in Tennessee, Rebeccah states that she has been told that he "is living with another woman in adultery" and that she fears he "never intends to return." The petitioner confesses that she is struggling to maintain and educate her children "under Very embarrassed circumstances" and that she "but for the aid of her father in law; would have been compelled to suffer for want of provisions and clothing for her seven infant children." She informs the court, however, that James's late father "left to him nine negroes the most of which number are small children an old man and an old woman" and "a tract of land upon which your oratrix now lives with her little family." Fearful that James "will try to get the negroes out of the hands of the Executor or so dispose of his interest as to leave your oratrix destitute of any means of support," Rebeccah prays that Lewis Dulany, the executor of James's father, be restrained "from disposing of the said property, land and negroes until the further order" of the court. The petitioner also asks that, in addition to a divorce, she be granted custody of her children and "a reasonable support for her and her infant children."
Result: Partially granted; dismissed.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
