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National Archive Microfilm Publications
Roll 1 - 1820 - 1843 Petition of Mary Anne Gray for Habeas Corpus To the Honorable the Judges of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington The petition of Mary Anne Gray, a free mulatto
woman, respectfully sheweth: That your petitioner, who is about seventy
years of age, is now confined in the Penitentiary Department of the Washington
Asylum, upon a commitment a copy of which is amended, and exhibited with
this, her petition. That the Act of the Corporation of Washington of the
16th December 1812, upon which the said commitment purports
to be founded, requires the information upon oath of a credible
citizen to authorize a Justice of the Peace to commit to the work
house for any of the offenses enumerated in the said Act. That Eliza Butler
and Matilda Anne Butler, the negro women upon whose oaths your petitioner
was committed, are not credible citizens.
That the said Matilda Anne Butler is a notorious prostitute, that the
said Eliza Butler is to say least of her, a drunken disorderly and worthless
person. Your petitioner therefore prays your Honors to grant her the writ
of Habeas Corpus, so that she may be brought before your Honors, to be
dealt with according to law, and she will pray. District of Columbia To Lambert & Beck Constable of the second ward of the city of Washington & Richard Butler, Intendant of the Washington Asylum. Whereas Mary Anne Gray stands charged before
me the subscriber a Justice of the Peace for the County aforesaid on the
oath of Elizabeth Butler & Matilda Ann Butler with being guilty of
using profane language, of keeping a house of ill fame & disorderly
conduct and having failed to give Security for her good, be (illegible)
you are therefore hereby commanded to take the said Mary Anne Gray into
your custody today & deliver her together with this warrant to the
Intendant of the said Washington Asylum & you the said Intendant are
hereby required and authorized to receive the said Mary Anne Gray &
her safe keep at hard labour for the space of ninety days from & after
the date hereof unless sooner discharged by due course of law. District of Columbia On this twenty fourth day of November in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirty five before me, the subscriber, a Justice of the Peace in and for said County personally appeared Mary Anne Gray, the petitioner in the aforesaid petition named and made oath in due form of law, that the facts therein stated are true. The United States of America You are hereby commanded that you have the body of Mary Anne Gray confined in the Penitentiary Department of the Washington Asylum, as it is said, by whatever name she was committed, together with the cause of her caption and detention, before the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia now sitting for the County of Washington immediately, to do receive and submit to what may be then and there considered in the premises. Hereof fail not as you will the contrary at your peril. Issued the 27th day of Nov. 1, 1835. Issued by order of Court. W. Brent, Clk. In obedience to the within writ, I have the
body of the within named Mary Anne Gray as (illegible) within commanded,
and hereby certify that she is detained in my custody on a commitment
which is herewith transmitted and for no other cause. Discharged by order of Court. |