465. Thomas J. Stevens of Charlestown in the County
of Middlesex, husband of Laura Ann Stevens of said
Boston. Libellant in a libel for divorce, against the said
Laura Ann Stevens, libellee, in which he represents that
on the first day of February in the year eighteen hun-
dred and fifty five he was married to Laura Ann
Waterhouse at said Charlestown by the Rev. Zachariah
Midge; that said libellant and the said Laura Ann
lived together thereafter as husband and wife at said
Charlestown until the twenty sixth day of May in
the year eighteen hundred and fifty eight; that said
libellant always remained faithful in all his mar-
riage obligations to said Laura Ann but that she
without cause on said twenty sixth day of May
in the year eighteen hundred and fifty eight,
deserted said libellant and remove to said Boston
where she now resides and has continued her said
desertion to the time of filing the libel.
Wherefore he prays that a divorce from the bonds
of matrimony may be decreed to him, and for such
further order and decree as to the Court may seem
meet.
This libel was filed in the Clerkâs office of this
Court on the twenty first day of March last, and there
upon a summons was xxx directed to the Sheriff
of said County of Suffolk on either of his Deputies com-
manding them to summon the said Laura Ann Stevens
to appear before the Justices of this Court at the present
time thereof, to answer said libel.
And now the libellant appears and enters his
libel, and a Deputy Sheriff of said County of Suffolk
makes returns that on the twenty first day of March
1865, he served the said Laura Ann Stevens with a
true and attested copy of said libel and order of
Court therein by delivering the same to her in hand
for her to appear and answer as witness required, - but
the said Laura Ann Stevens although solemnly called
to come into Court doth not appear but makes
default.
Whereupon on learning is had and the allega-
tions of said libel being satisfactorily proved it is ordered
and decreed by the Court that the bonds of matrimony
subsisting between the said Thomas J. Stevens and
Laura Ann Stevens be and the same are hereby
dissolved on account of the desertion of said
Laura Ann Stevens.