New Haven County Superior Court Divorce Case Documents Collection

Version: 10 (current) | Updated: 12/4/2025, 3:23:45 PM

Added description

Description

New Haven County Superior Court Divorce Case Documents – Ruth Roberts (1773)

Overview

This digital collection preserves the court‑record documents of a 1773 divorce proceeding involving Ruth Roberts and her husband, Charles Roberts, in the New Haven County Superior Court. The materials are held by the Connecticut State Library and are part of the NHSC BAAI (Black, African American, and Indigenous History) retrospective series. The collection is presented in English and includes high‑resolution JPEG and TIFF scans, a PINAX metadata file, and OCR‑extracted text.

Background

The New Haven County Superior Court was the primary civil and criminal court for the county during the colonial period. In 1773 the court processed a petition filed by Ruth Roberts, a case that is among the earliest surviving documents in the BAAI project. The Connecticut State Library’s NHSC BAAI initiative digitizes and indexes court files that involve Black, African American, or Indigenous individuals, thereby illuminating the legal experiences of marginalized communities in colonial Connecticut.

Contents

  • Divorce Petition of Ruth Roberts (filed February 22, 1773) – the petition records the marriage of Ruth and Charles in December 1753, the alleged abandonment and misconduct of the husband, and requests a bill of divorce under colonial law.
  • Marriage Certificate Documents – a handwritten record of the 1753 marriage, issued by the First Church in New Haven and recorded by Rev. Joseph Noyes.
  • Digital Images – two high‑resolution JPEGs and their TIFF counterparts (e.g., RG003NHSCBAAIPSDivorceRoberts002.jpg and RG003NHSCBAAIPSDivorceRoberts004.jpg), each containing OCR‑extracted text that reproduces the original entries.
  • Metadata – a PINAX JSON file that documents provenance, creator, date, language, subjects, and place, and links the items to the subject‑index field NHSCBAAICasesPapersSubject.
  • Supporting Notes – annotations indicating the collection’s inclusion in the BAAI retrospective series and its relevance to African American and Indigenous legal history.

Scope

The collection focuses on a single divorce case from 1773, located in New Haven County, Connecticut. It represents a broader set of court filings that the NHSC BAAI project is cataloguing, but the current holdings are limited to the petition, the marriage record, and associated metadata. The materials are useful for scholars of colonial legal history, African American studies, Indigenous studies, and genealogical research, offering insight into early family law and the social status of Black and Indigenous people in colonial America.

Entities

(loading...)

Entity Relationships

(loading...)

Raw Cheimarros Data

@file_pinax {title: "New Haven County Superior Court Divorce Case Documents Collection", creators: [@first_church_in_new_haven, @ruth_roberts, @new_haven_county_superior_court], institution: @connecticut_state_library, date_range: {start: @date_1753, end: @date_1773}, language: "en", subjects: ["Divorce","Marriage","African American History","Black, African American, and Indigenous History","Legal documents","Church Records","New Haven County","18th century"], description: "Collection of documents related to a divorce case involving Ruth Roberts from the New Haven County Superior Court, including marriage certificates, divorce petitions, and supporting documents, part of the Black, African American, and Indigenous (BAAI) collection.", access_url: "PLACEHOLDER", source: "PINAX", rights: "", places: [@new_haven, @new_haven_county]}

@file_pinax -> part of -> @nhsc_baai_divorce_case

@file_pinax -> metadata for -> @marriage_certificate_documents

@file_pinax -> metadata for -> @divorce_petition_documents

@file_pinax -> indexed by -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject

@ruth_roberts -> appears as -> creator in @file_pinax

@ruth_roberts -> petitioner in -> @divorce_petition_roberts

@first_church_in_new_haven -> creator of -> @marriage_certificate_documents

@first_church_in_new_haven -> listed as creator in -> @file_pinax

@new_haven_county_superior_court -> creator of -> @file_pinax

@new_haven_county_superior_court -> jurisdiction for -> @marriage_record_01

@new_haven_county_superior_court -> jurisdiction for -> @divorce_petition_roberts

@nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject -> used to index -> @marriage_certificate_documents

@nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject -> used to index -> @divorce_petition_documents

@file_pinax -> covers period -> {start: @date_1753, end: @date_1773}

Metadata

Title
New Haven County Superior Court Divorce Case Documents Collection
Type
Collection
Creator
First Church in New HavenRuth RobertsNew Haven County Superior Court
Institution
Connecticut State Library
Created
1753-1773
Language
en
Subjects
Divorce, Marriage, African American History, Black, African American, and Indigenous History, Legal documents, Church Records, New Haven County, 18th century
Place
New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven County
Source
PINAX

Version History (10 versions)

  • ✓ v10 (current) · 12/4/2025, 3:23:45 PM
    "Added description"
  • v9 · 12/4/2025, 3:01:03 PM · View this version
    "Added knowledge graph extraction"
  • v8 · 12/4/2025, 6:43:10 AM · View this version
    "Added PINAX metadata"
  • v7 · 12/4/2025, 6:29:12 AM · View this version
    "Reorganized into 3 groups"
  • v6 · 12/4/2025, 6:29:11 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0SSK9QFECVKJT5HB3ERJG"
  • v5 · 12/4/2025, 6:29:09 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0SQM93JY37NPF7QVN3B8F"
  • v4 · 12/4/2025, 6:29:08 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0SP3YDY7X07BPDANVMY2A"
  • v3 · 12/4/2025, 6:19:48 AM · View this version
    "Added OCR to 4 files"
  • v2 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:50 AM · View this version
    "Set parent to 01KBKZYT0E4WN250H1RKB10E89"
  • v1 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:07 AM · View this version
    "Initial snapshot"

Additional Components

reorganization-description.txt
# Reorganization Summary

The files were grouped based on their content and context within the divorce case of Ruth and Charles Roberts. The primary groupings are: 1) Marriage certificate documents, 2) Divorce petition documents, and 3) Supporting documents related to the case. Each group contains both the original image files and their corresponding reference JSON files. The filenames and content were used to determine the appropriate grouping, ensuring that all files are accounted for in logical, coherent groups.

## Groups Created

- **Marriage_Certificate_Documents**: Files containing or referencing the marriage certificate of Charles Roberts (North) and Ruth Roberts, including the original certificate and its transcription.
- **Divorce_Petition_Documents**: Files containing or referencing Ruth Roberts' petition for divorce from Charles Roberts, including the original petition and its transcription.
- **Supporting_Documents**: Files containing or referencing supporting documents related to the divorce case, including Ruth Roberts' mark and collection for Davona.

Parent

↑ 01KBKZYT0E4WN250H1RKB10E89

Children (3)