Myra Clark Gaines (c. June 30, 1804 – January 9, 1885) was an American socialite and plaintiff in the longest-running lawsuit in the history of the United States court system.

[3] Once there, Clark built up a decent fortune running his uncle's mercantile house and investing those profits in New Orleans real estate.

In Carrière's absence, Clark courted another socialite, Louisa Caton, granddaughter of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

[13] According to Davis, Gaines learned about the will and her father's identity in 1830 when she supposedly found correspondence from Clark that acknowledged her as his daughter.

Other evidence puts into doubt this chain of events, but regardless Gaines never asked Davis to make further demands upon Relf and Chew or attempted to write them on her own behalf.

Davis had a strained relationship with Whitney and did not approve of Gaines' marriage to him for unconfirmed reasons, though it somehow involved Clark's estate.

[16] Following this investigation, Whitney filed a preliminary lawsuit in February 1834 to contest the validity of the 1811 will in the Eastern District Court of Louisiana.

Although Louisiana followed civil law, which gave women more flexibility and power in controlling their own property, Gaines's claims were primarily filed in U.S. federal courts.

The specific claims alleged Relf and Chew had acted fraudulently by pretending that Clark endorsed to them a loan made to Davis.

[18] In response, the executors denied the allegations and further argued that Clark had never been married to Carrière, had no legitimate descendants, and left his estate to his mother.

A few months later, in December 1834, Federal District Court judge Samuel Harper ruled in this preliminary suit in favor of Relf and Chew.

[20] Over the course of subsequent suits, the couple widened the scope of their litigation to include as defendants at least twenty-five purchasers of property from Clark's estate.

First, Harriet Harper Smythe, the nurse who cared for Gaines as an infant, testified about the contents of the 1813 will, which Clark signed only a month before his death.

[23] At the center of the litigation was the question of whether there existed a legal marriage between Gaines's parent, Daniel Clark and Zulime Carrière.

The testimony at trial explained that Clark's primary motivation for keeping a clandestine marriage was to protect his political hope of becoming Louisiana's governor.

[25] Equity, for example, allowed the couple to ask the judge to force the defendants to answer her petition through a writ of subpoena, which also made it possible for her case to come to trial.

Thus, the judge's ruling was a surprising blow to the case, especially since the general custom of Louisiana federal courts was to allow both equity and common law practice.

Still, the Louisiana judges that heard Gaines' earlier cases often revealed their lack of impartiality by making these types of exceptions to the rules of practice.

[28] In Ex parte Whitney (1839), Gaines petitioned and appeared before the Supreme Court for the first time to demand that the Louisiana federal district judge adjudicate her case according to the rules of equity practice.

Although Justice Story and the Court were not moved by the dramatic events of Gaines's life, they did conclude the Louisiana judge allow her case to be tried at equity.

[33] In other words, if Carrière's prior marriage was valid, then Gaines was an adulterous bastard and not a claimant under the 1811 will since her union with Clark was bigamous.

[34] Justice James Wayne's opinion in Patterson demonstrated the majority's desire to provide more legal protections to families, women, and children.

His opinion further held that Relf and Chew had no authority under the 1811 will to sell any property from Clark's estate, that their role as executors had ended, and that the deeds they issued were void.

Gaines's plight in the courtroom led to extensive media coverage that propelled her into a celebrity status that few women had in the late nineteenth century.

Immediately, New Orleans papers were in firm support of Relf and Chew while Gaines received a strong backing from the Northern press.

The Southern papers often questioned Gaines's true motivations and praised Relf and Chew's determination to rise above any speculation.

On the other hand, the Northern papers were moved by elements of romance and tragedy marking Gaines's life, often referring to her case as the cause of an injured orphan.

Litigators like Daniel Webster, John A. Campbell, Francis Scott Key and Reverdy Johnson all ensured that her case remained in the front pages of the news.

In 1840, Gaines set out with the General on an extensive lecture tour throughout the Atlantic to discuss his plan of national defense, which promoted the use of floating batteries over fleets of steam-powered warships.

[44] In support of the General, Gaines spoke after him about the horrors of war to packed town halls in St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.