Rebecca Jeffers Dowdy petitions for a divorce. Dowdy represents that she intermarried with Ellison Dowdy in 1852. In November 1853 he "went to California ... and has never returned here." She informs the court that "he has pretended from time to time that it was his purpose to try and make money and come back to your complainant" but now the petitioner realizes that he has no intention of returning. In fact, he is "now a non resident of the State of Va and in fact of the United States," residing instead in a British colony. Considering herself an abandoned woman, the petitioner prays that the court "annul the bond of marriage between her and her husband."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Circuit Court Clerk's Office, Petersburg, Virginia
