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  • Divorce

    When divorce become acceptable for the ordinary people in the street?

  • #2
    That's always going to be a bit subjective, but...
    Probably when no-fault options became available. And that was quite recent.

    Christine
    Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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    • #3
      I don't know about acceptable, but it was only available from 1858.

      TNA have indexed the early ones: 1858: 1937

      Detecting your browser settings

      use this link, put in the surname you want and type J77 in the department or series box at the bottom, then see what comes up. I found a Skillings divorce that way.
      Phoenix - with charred feathers
      Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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      • #4
        nb if that link doesn't work, copy & paste this address

        http://www.national archives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp

        removing the space between national & archives
        Phoenix - with charred feathers
        Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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        • #5
          Teeny correction, Phoenix, sorry.

          Divorce has always been available, but until 1858 it was the prerogative of the rich mostly, and an individual act of parliament had to be passed for each divorce.

          The church also operated "divorce" which they preferred to call annulment, or marriage dissolved. Again, mostly for the rich.

          My Thomas and Mary Holden divorced in 1603, with surprisingly modern complaints about each other. She was "a great and incontinent whore" and he was lacking in the bedroom department, lol.

          The divorce cost them a £400 fine, paid to the church of course.

          OC

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          • #6
            Crikey!!!!
            I think they must have added to the National Archives recently, as I had looked before and not found this.

            My parents always told me that my maternal grandmother divorced her husband ( my grandfather) because of his involvement with the abduction of my aunt.

            It now seems that HE divorced HER because of her adultery!!!!

            Crikey!!!
            Last edited by Muggins in Sussex; 14-12-07, 13:50.
            Joan died in July 2020.

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            • #7
              Muggins

              There were still only very few reasons for divorce, even round WW2. Abducting a child was not one of them!

              Have you checked she didn't enter her own divorce action?

              OC

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              • #8
                Ooh, I see that if you put a surname in that search box it also comes up with cases where the co-respondent had that name!
                KiteRunner

                Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                • #9
                  Ooops, just found a certain direct ancestor of mine listed as co-respondent! Won't give more details on here as google will pick it up...
                  KiteRunner

                  Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                  (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Trish@Somerset View Post
                    When divorce become acceptable for the ordinary people in the street?

                    I don't know about acceptable to ordinary people Trish but my mother was horrified when I told her in 1979 that I was leaving my husband & coming home to England. According to her, nothing like that had ever happened in our family. Yeah right!:D
                    Vivienne passed away July 2013

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                      Muggins

                      There were still only very few reasons for divorce, even round WW2. Abducting a child was not one of them!

                      Have you checked she didn't enter her own divorce action?

                      OC
                      Sorry, I was in a rush - had to go for my annual hair cut!

                      No I haven't checked but will - my grandfather was always made out to be the black sheep in the family - I understood also, that he lived with another woman . I never met him and until a few years ago, didn't know his name.

                      I suppose if my grandmother also petitioned, it would be relatively close in time (?)

                      Interesting that the NA summary includes the name of the co-respondent

                      Thanks OC
                      Joan died in July 2020.

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                      • #12
                        Um, yes, well OC, I meant divorce for us plebs. The only routes for my lot pre 1858 were desertion, bigamy & murder (the last two hopefully undetected!)
                        Phoenix - with charred feathers
                        Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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                        • #13
                          Many thanks, so really only recently unless you were loaded

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                          • #14
                            The church had a handy get out clause, pre civil divorce.

                            Desertion for seven years (including imprisonment or transportation) allowed the "innocent" spouse to remarry in church.

                            And someone on here I think it was, reported a divorce in the late 1800s of a very lowly man, which appears to have been funded by the CHURCH!

                            Muggins

                            Yes, I would expect petition and counter-petition to be concurrent. However, they may have agreed privately to let one divorce the other - this was highly illegal and could result in imprisonment if caught; and it was usually the MAN who allowed himself to be divorced, not the woman, as she always had far too much to lose, including her children.

                            I would say that certainly up to WW1, divorces were in the hundreds each year, rather than thousands.

                            OC

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                            • #15
                              Thanks yet again OC - there is definitely only the one petition on the NA website (maybe the listing doesn't show cross-petitions (?) )

                              The Divorce was actually in 1928 - much earlier than I had thought

                              There now appear to have been three men in my grandmother's life!

                              Why do both sides of my family have to be so flippin' complicated!! -
                              Last edited by Muggins in Sussex; 14-12-07, 16:51.
                              Joan died in July 2020.

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                              • #16
                                Actually, I guess the naming of a co-respondent could just be a red herring

                                And sorry for having hi-jacked your thread, Trish
                                Joan died in July 2020.

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                                • #17
                                  Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                                  And someone on here I think it was, reported a divorce in the late 1800s of a very lowly man, which appears to have been funded by the CHURCH!
                                  I have one in 1889 of a fairly nondescript couple, in this case funded by the wronged husband's parents (mostly the mother), who also "abducted" the child of the marriage. All very sad, by 1905 the child had hardly a living relative.
                                  Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                                  • #18
                                    Just looked on the offchance for my "cad" Villiers, and I found a 1903 divorce (not the right people) where it's the husband's petition and the co-respondent is female.
                                    Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                                    • #19
                                      Just a side note..............I found my divorce (pre 1858) in The Times Digital Archive.

                                      The whole juicy story was there.

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                                      • #20
                                        Just want to point out that those entries on the National Archives J77 include divorce actions that didn't actually result in a divorce (having looked at the obituary of one of the people involved in one of them)
                                        KiteRunner

                                        Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                                        (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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