Ellen A. Field seeks a divorce from James W. Field, whose conduct "has frequently been marked by unkindness, harshness, and cruelty." She recounts an episode where her husband "slapped her Jaws and then carried her to a tree where he could procure switches and with them inflicted a whipping upon her -- that finally, he gave her several severe blows over her head and shoulders with a stick the bruises occasioned by which remaining for several weeks upon her person." The petitioner believes that said conduct "has been for the most part attributable to habits of intemperance, which are gradually but steadily growing upon him." Citing that the said Field "is the owner of some seven or eight slaves and that he has recently sold a plantation for some several Thousand Dollars," the petitioner prays that the court will grant her "a divorce from the bed and board of her said husband," allow her custody of her five children, and "that your honor would make such decree in relation to your complainants interest in her husbands estate as to the court shall seem reasonable."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
