FRANKLIN COUNTY, TN - VITALS - Divorce, Susan Doolin from Thomas J. Doolin ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: CCarson543@aol.com ==================================================================== SUSAN DOOLIN petition for a Divorce (Warren & Franklin Counties) To the honourable the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee Your petitioner SUSAN DOOLIN respectfully represents unto your honourable body that in the latter part of the year 1829 she was legally married to Thomas J. DOOLIN and lived together in peace and harmony for and during the space of two years. Your petitioner striving for all the means in her power to make him the said husband happy. But since then I have had good reason to believe from his conduct that he has been guilty of acts and deeds inconsistent with their marriage. Now--that he did leave my bed and has been guilty of adultery with innocent and lewd women and allso from his own relations to me stating that he had in a carnel way kept and made use of a negroe girl that belonged to me, the negroe says the same which statements I believe to be facts. He has also wasted my substance and left me to the charity of my friends. he left me some time in the month of April last and told me that he never intended to live with me again and he has not been with me since. Your petitioner prays that your honorable body would pass a law divorcing her from her said husband and your petitioner in duty bound will ever pray. October 23, 1833 Susan Doolin ************************* State of Tennessee Bedford County Personally appeared before me, John E. SCRUGGS, acting Justice of the Peace, John GOWEN and made .... that Thomas J. DOOLIN did execute a Deed of Trust to him. The said John GOWEN and Susan DOOLIN his wife for her benefit. Sometime as well as he recollects at this time in the month of February and asks to the following negroes (to wit), one negroe boy named Step, one negroe boy, Spence, and one negroe girl named Eliza. This deponant (?) further sayeth that he understood said DOOLIN had executed a deed of Trust to Thomas FINCH of Franklin County for the above mentioned negroes and after he the said DOOLIN made the deed of Trust to his wife Susan DOOLIN then give him an order to the said FINCH for the deed of Trust in his hands. Two of the above negroes Step & Spence were ..... to William MACGREW. After they had been in ...... of said MacGrew some short time the said negroes were taken away from MacGrew in the night. As he the said Gowen was informed and he further states he has every reason to believe by the said Doolin and then sent away from this County and sold. This deponant (?) further states that some time in the month of April said Thomas J. Doolin in company with his brothers, JORDAN DOOLIN and JAMES ARMSTRONG at his house and made a strong attempt to take away the negroe girl Eliza, his wife, Susan Doolin, being there at his house and the girl. Also in his possession the said Mrs. Doolin and said negroe Eliza with her upstairs being alarmed. He said Doolin (Thomas) went up and endeavored to take the negroe away from Mrs. Doolin, but did not effect it. The next day he said Doolin he believe left the country. The property then left in possession of Mrs. Doolin .... ...... the officers could conveniently get hold of was taken and sold for said Doolin's debts. John Gowen Sworn and Subscribed to before me this 29th of Oct 1833 *********************** The undersigned citizen of Franklin County, states that he is well acquainted with Susannah Doolen, wife of Thomas J. Doolen of said county, who hath petitioned the Legislature for a Divorce. At the time of their marriage, Mrs. Doolen was a widow, possessed of considerable property both real and personal -- Doolen (Thomas) had nothing. He is a man of pro_____ habits and has squandered and spent nearly all her estate and abandoned her and the country as he said for Texas. Mrs. Doolen prostrated herself on her knees before him and with great earnestship implored him not to leave her, but remain and treat her only half as wife as he was bound to do, and she would be satisfied. This he obstantely reffer _____ and declined it to be his determination to go immediately to Texas. He went off and has been absent ever since until lately -- when he returned and has been prowling about in the neighborhood, as is generally believed, and as I believe, for the purpose of stealing the only remaining slave, formerly the property of his wife, and which had been conveyed by him in trust to John GOWEN of Bedford (County) for his wife's benefit and having stolen two of them, that had been conveyed to Gowen some time before. I heard Doolen admit it, that he had sold eight (8) or ten (10) of his wife's negroes. When he returned lately he was in front. Mrs. Doolen is a lady of unexceptional character. Given under my hand at Nashville, this second (2nd) day of November 1833 Joseph HICKERSON ************************ October 24, 1833 Franklin County I do certify that I was at Carl CRABS at July ____ in 1832 in Winchester and I saw Thomas J. DOOLEN at the kitchen of Carl Crabs talking with a negro girl and that night he made choice to take a bed by himself and other beds believing filled he said that he would lay on a bed that had nothing in the bedstead but under bed that gave me room to suspicion him that he wanted to go to kitchen in the night and he laid. But then he got up and was gone almost to day before he returned and that established me in my opinion about him and of all said believe him to be a runabout and ____ and so forth. David LUMBOLD (?) *********************** State of Tennessee Warren County October 26, 1833 We do hereby satisfy that from the acquaintance we have had with Thomas J. DOLIN that we believe him to be ____ spendthrift and that he has spent a fortune and left Mrs. DOLIN entirely dependant on her friends for support. James WILSON William WILSON William HOWARD ************************** State of Tennessee Franklin County We the undersigned believing that the veracity and moral character of Mrs. Susan DOOLIN are impeccable and also believing that public _____ say of the conduct of Thomas J. DOOLIN towards his wife are of the belief that the said Mrs. Doolin is ____ entitled to a divorce from the said Thomas J. Doolin her husband. October 21, 1833 (some of the names as signatures sometimes were hard to read) P. B. JENKINS, William WILSON, William HOWARD, James WILSON, Alen Co___, W. H. MURRAY, Thomas WRIGHT, Samuel B. MURRAY, John HICKERSON, Jesse JENKINS, Benjamin HOLLINS, Thomas FINCH, A. C. PATTON, John THOMPSON, ************************** PRIVATE ACTS passed at THE FIRST SESSION of the TWENTIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the STATE OF TENNESSEE. 1833. Published by Authority. Allen A. Hall & F. S. Heiskell, Printers to the State. Nashville: Printed at the Republican and Gazette Office, 1833. Page 98 Chapter CLXXXIII An Act to divorce Susan DOOLIN from her husband Thomas J. DOOLIN. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, that the bonds of matrimony now existing between Thomas J. DOOLIN, and his wife, Susan, be, and they are hereby, forever dissolved; and that the said Susan shall hereafter be known by the name of Susan WHITEHEAD. F. W. HULING, Speaker of the House of Representatives. D. BURFORD, Speaker of the Senate. Passed November 22, 1833.