SOLD, SEPARATED, DIVORCED

Ian Waller’s opened his talk at our October meeting by telling the audience that in the past as many wives as husbands sought to leave or desert their marriages. After 1858 all applications for divorce & wills were heard in London..
In 1927 District registrars were established to hear cases & in 1960 County Courts were able to hear divorce cases. After 1938 all divorce papers were destroyed after 20 years. Indexes can be found at the National Archives & some internet sites.
The Times Newspaper at one time recorded all divorce procedures & Palmers index is another source of information.
It is thought that 20% of marriages were never legal. The bonding of the two parties often only confirmed by ‘jumping the broomstick’ and that if the situation arose when husband/father died or disappeared the family collapsed & became chargeable to the parish.
Judicial separation took three avenues, Nullity, Annulment and Divorce, and were made by Consistency Courts.
Nullity covered situations such as underage marriage without parental consent.
Annulment covered adultery & cruelty & was a form of legal separation that protected the legitimacy of children and the wife’s rights.
Neither party could remarry.
An Act of parliament was necessary for divorce & was extremely expensive.
Private separation occurred by private deed papers when the husband had to provide a trustee for his wife & make provision for his children & included legal safeguards for the wife. This situation was not recognised by the church. Deeds can be searched in the Close Rolls (C54) at the N.A.
Desertion appeared to be the simple solution for a husband especially where there was no property involved. The wife & children became chargeable to the parish, although efforts were made to find the errant husband to make him pay for the upkeep of his family. Neither party was free to remarry & if a marriage did take place it was bigamous & carried a death sentence. Hence it is understandable that when searching for the husband it is worth looking at emigration records!
The sale of a wife caused great amusement amongst the audience as this usually took place on market days.
This action was often noted as a formal record in the market records.
It was done as an auction but often by pre arranged bidding. The cost of the wife being equated with her weight!
There was a symbolic transfer of person, property & responsibility to the buyer.
There was a public display of handing back the wedding ring (if the wife was fortunate to have one) & the payment of the fee.
Ian answered many questions to end the evening.
[Barbara Holmes]