FILE:
GIVENS,  John Witherspoon
Copied from Probate Records in Baldwin Co., AL
By Wiley B. Hill, Jr., 31 Aug 1967

State of Alabama
Probate Court of said county
Baldwin County

To Hon. William H. Gasque, Judge of said Court:

 Your Petitioner, Amanda Givens, respectfully represents unto your honor that she is the wife of John Givens, a resident of said county, and that she has continued to live with her said husband from the time of their marriage, more than twenty years ago, until the 27th of June last, when she was compelled to leave him on account of violence to her by him and in order to prevent him from repeating further acts of violence upon her, her personal safety being in danger so long as she continued to live with him.  And your Petitioner further shows unto your honor that at the time of their separation she and her said husband, had, among other children, two infant boys, Henry Thomas and Green B. Hamilton, in whose behalf this application, aged respectively five years and thirteen months, that the said infants are illegally and wrongfully kept and detained by said John Givesn, from the custody of their natural guardian and protector, this petitioner, their mother, and that the said John Givens detains them in this county and your petitioner further shows unto your honor that one of the said infants, Green B. Hamilton is a suckling infant constantly requiring the care and attention of a mother and that your petitioner is suffering in the breast from the surplus formation of milk, and that the other Henry Thomas is a child of five years of such tender age as to render it entirely unable to dispense with the care, custody, and services of a mother.

 And Petitioner states that the said John Givens has no female relative to whom he can give the custody of said children and that he is a man of brutal disposition and of intemperate habits thus rendering him an unfit person to have the custody of said infants and that your petitioner is able and willing to cheerfully, keep, raise, and school said children, and petitioner respectfully shows unto your honor that there is no circuit Judge or Chancellor in said county that said children are residing in said county and that under Sections 4938 and 4940 of the code she is compelled to seek redress in your Honorable Court, the legal guardian and tribunal of the orphans and minors, wherefore you petitioner prays for a writ of habeas corpus directed to the said John Givens, commanding him to have the bodies of Henry Thomas Givens and Green B. Hamilton before your Honor at a time and place to be by your appointed.

Signed, Amanda Givens (her mark)x
 
 
 

Sworn to on 14th July, 1880
State of Alabama
Baldwin County

 To John Givens, you are commanded to have the bodies of Henry Thomas Givesn and Green B. Hamilton Givens alleged to be detained by you, by whatsoever names they are called, before William H. Gasque, Judge of Probate Court of said County on the 22nds day of July 1880 at  the courthouse at 10 o’clock a.m. to do and receive what shall then and there be considered and ordered concerning the said Henry Thomas Givens and Green B. Hamilton Givens.  This, 14th July 1880.

W. H. Gasques
Judge of Probate
Baldwin County

[On another paper, John W. Givesn signs with his mark, “x”, 26 July, 1880].

On the 26th July 1880, Judge W.H. Gasque gave custody of Green B. Hamilton, aged about 15 months, to the mother, Amanda Givens and custody of Henry Thomas to the father, John Givens.