Shelly, Clarissa, 1795 -

Clarissa Shelly was the daughter of Eastern Pequot community members, Samuel and Esther Shelly of North Stonington, Connecticut. She married Peleg Simpson from Newport in Lebanon on June 27, 1814.  However, the marriage was not to last long.  Simpson was sued by Rose Raymond in a bastardy suit in 1816.  Clarissa left him three years later.  Simpson later sued for divorce in 1824, but the court did not grant him one. In January of 1841, she was a signatory on an Eastern Pequot petition requesting the removal and replacement of overseer Ezra Hewitt.

Five years later in 1846, she received funds from the tribal overseer for cloth for the lining of a dress and for funds for taking care of Cyrus Shelly when he was sick, which suggests a familial relationship between the two, perhaps cousins.

New London Superior Court Divorces, CSL.  Brown and Rose, Black Roots, 379.