Day Family:Information about Dianah Griggs
Dianah Griggs (b. 05 Jan 1787, d. 1878)
Notes for Dianah Griggs:
Vital records
There was no law requiring a record to be kept of marriage licenses issued until 1805. Some county clerks already had been keeping a register, others refused to do so even after the law was passed.
(Complaint)
Georgia }
Troup County} To the honorable Superior Court of Said County.
The petition of Dianah Thornton of said County respectfully sweareth that some time in the month of June in the year eighteen hundred and five she was married to Isam Thornton before which time she was Dianah Griggs (by Maiden name) that ever since their intermarriage she has behaved herself with constancy fidelity and affection as his wife abstaining from all other men untill on or about the first day of January eighteen hundred and twenty five when the said Isam Thornton left your petitioner parted from her and entirely quit her & has thence thereunto lived apart from your petitioner in an open state of adultery with another woman not his lawful wife and has cohabited with her unlawfully and continues to do so up to this time, wherefore your petitioner prays that the matrimonial contract heretofore subsisting between them may be completely nulified set aside and divorced as though it never had existed. And that process may issue requiring the said Isam Thornton to be and appear at the next Superior court to be held in and for said county there and then to answer your petitioner in a libel for Divorce a vinculo matrimonii JC
Julius Alford
petitioners aty.
(Return of Service)
Personally served the defendant Isaam Thornton with a copy of this writ this 9th Feby. 1832
William D. Hargrove
Clk. of Muscogee County
(Summons)
Georgia, Troup County.
By His Honor Walter T. Colquitt Judge of the Superior Court for the County and State aforesaid.
To Henry C. Dawson & Andrew B. Griffin, Esquires-Greeting:
Whereas there is a certain matter of controversy now depending in the Superior court for said County, between Dianah Thornton vs. Isam Thornton,
And whereas David Smith is a material witness in said suit, and cannot attend our said Court in person, without manifest inconvenience--
NOW KNOW YE, That we, reposing especial trust and confidence in your prudence and fidelity, have appointed you, and you, or any two or more of you, are hereby authorized and required to cause the said David Smith personally to come before you, and after being duly sworn, to examine him concerning the said suit, agreeable to the interrogatories hereunto annexed, and the answers to the same being plainly and distinctly written, you are to send the same closed up under your hands and seals, to our said Court, to be held on the fourth Monday in September next, together with this writ.
WITNESS the Honorable Walter T. Colquitt Judge of said Court, this 29th day of August 1832.
N. Johnson Clk.
(Interrogatories)
Georgia} Dianah Thornton} Libel for
Troup County} Isam Thornton} Divorce
In the Superior Court of Said County.
Interrogatories to be exhibited to David Smith a material witness for the plaintiff in the above Stated Case and who resides out of the County of Troup.
Interrogatory the 1st Do you know the parties in the above Stated Case?
Int. 2nd Did you ever know of Isam Thornton using another woman for his wife besides Dianah Thornton his Lawful wife?
Int. 3rd Did you ever see him bed with an other woman if yea Say where it was and State about the time as near as you can?
Int. 4th State if Isam Thornton lives with his wife and treats her as a husband ought to do?
Int. 5th Relate all you know in favor of the plaintiff Dianah Thornton?
Julius L. Alford
Pett. Atty
(Answers to Interrogatories)
Georgia}
Muscogee County}
In Pursuance of a commission from the Superior court of Troup County to us directed wherein Dianah Thornton is plaintiff & Isam Thornton is defendant in an action a Libel for divorce we Commissioners whos names are inserted in said commission have caused David Smith the witness named in said commission to come before us and after being duly sworn true answers to make to the Interrogatories annexed to said commission.
To the first interrogatories he answers: I do.
To the 2nd interrogatory he answers: I did.
To the 3rd interrogatory he answers: I did see defendant go to bed with another woman at my house in Harris County Georgia as it was as well as I recollect on the night of the second Saturday in April eighteen hundred & thirty.
Int. the 4th he answers: I do not know at this time whether he lives with her or not and therefore cannot say how he is treating her at this present time only my candid belief is from what I have seen & heard since and at the time I saw him go to bed with an other woman at my house as I stated in my answer to the third interrogatory that he does not live with his lawful wife at this time and of course is not or has not treating her right.
To the 5th & last interrogatory he answers: At the time said defendant was at my house on the second Saturday in April 1830 I & my wife had been from home on that day and on our return I found Isam Thornton the defendant at my house and some little time after I had been there one of my children & perhaps some of the black people too informed me that said defendants wife was at the spring where some of my negroes was living after ascertaining that my wife sent a little child down to the spring to tell her we had come home and for her to come to the house but she did not come in an half an hour thereafter during which time defendant Isam Thornton took me out or aside & told me he could not live with his wife and that he had left her and had taken up with an other woman which he had along with him and she was then down at the spring which woman was by the name of Adiline McCormic or something very near like that name and they both stayed all night at my house and beded together and from the cracking of the bed stead I believe they acted as man and wife commonly do on similar occasions. I have stated all I know or recollect at this time.
David Smith
Answers Sworn to and Subscribed to
before us this 15th September 1832
A. B. Griffin Com'r
H. C. Dawson Com'r
(Verdict)
Dianah Thornton}
vs.
Isaam Thornton} Libel for divorce.
We the Jury find that there is sufficient evidence before us to authorise a total divorce upon legal principals (JC) a divorce a vinculo matrimonii between the parties in this case this 25 day Sept. 1832.
Wiley J. Starling foreman
John Traylor, Isaac Ross, Henry Boyd, Henry Kellam, Phillip H. Green, Richard L. L__, S__ T. Johnson, William T. Bolton, Joseph T. Morehead, Henry West, Willis Kellam
(Divorce Decree)
Whereupon it is considered by the Court that the said Dianah Thornton be totally divorced from her husband the said Isam Thornton and that the marriage contract between them be entirely annulled and set aside as though the same had never existed and that they be divorced a vinculo matrimonii and the defendant without a day ____. 29th Sept 1832.
Julius Alford
petitioners Aty.
Source: Records of the Superior Court of Troup County, Georgia (March Term, 1832.)
(Original records on file with Troup County Archives, LaGrange, Georgia.)
* From 1793 to 1832, divorces in Georgia were subject to legislative approval after being approved by the county superior court. The divorce files continue to be in the custody of the county superior courts.
* The 1840 Troup Co., Ga census shows alongside Diannah Griggs name, one male age 20 to 30, and one female age 50 to 60. The male living with Dianna would be her youngest child, Robert William Thornton, age 21.
* The 1850 Census for Meriwether Co., GA showed Dianna to be 53 and having a grandson living with her. This being Rhodom Maxey Brooks, son of Lucy Thornton and Maxey Brooks. Rhodom Maxie Brooks was also enumerated with his parents in the 1850 Troup Co., GA census.
* The 1860 federal Census for Tallapoosa Co., AL gives Dianna's age as 74 and Joseph Heard's age as 56.
* It's nice to think that Dianna was a young looking and attractive woman when she married Joseph as she was 18 years older than he was. This age difference came from the 1860 Federal Census for Tallapoosa Co., AL.
Isham Thornton married Dicey Griggs, daughter of Rhodum and Milley Bagley Griggs. Their children were Harrison, Rhodum, Isham, Robert, Milly, Lucy, and Sarah Thornton.
Dicey or Dynah Thornton married John Garner Griggs of Putnam Co. in 1833 and Joseph Heard in 1859 in Troup Co. The children of Isham and Dicey Thornton are named in an 1840 partition deed in Hancock Co. as the heirs of Isham Thornton. (Nancy Royce, from Griggs genforum, messge 3297, 23 Nov. 2000)
More About Dianah Griggs:
Burial: Unknown, Troup Co., Georgia.250
More About Dianah Griggs and William Harrison Thornton:
Marriage: Bef. 1806, Troup Co., Georgia.251
Children of Dianah Griggs and William Harrison Thornton are:
- +Sarah Thornton, b. 03 Feb 1814, Virginia252, d. Aft. 1880, Unknown.