Statement of case, for opinion, relating to William Henderson, complainant, and Elizabeth Smallman, respondent, a Quaker, who contracted marriage 5 May 1713.

'Complainant's affairs call'd him often abroade, some time to London with Linen Cloath'. During his absence respondent is alleged to have taken sums of her husband's money and applied them to her own private use. About this time, in 1715, the complainant and the Quakers were in dispute and he had unfortunately become bound to two Quakers for £800. By 1717 the Quakers were advising his wife with her three sons to take the rest of his goods and the complainant was imprisoned. Defendant visited him during his confinement but only to persuade him to assign her the lease of a house in Cork Street, Dublin.

The complainant is about 40 years and the respondent above 60 and they never had any children together, 'Neither were they maried according to any Law of Nation, or Cannons of any Church by Law Established'. She refuses to cohabit with him unless he 'submitt to her managers ye Quakers'. Since complainant 'differs in several points of Religion with ye Quakers' should he 'change his condition by taking a wife: according to ye Cannons of ye Church of England'?

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