About the Project

Why divorce cases?

High-profile divorce cases regularly grab headlines and public attention and their circumstances (not to mention the public response to them) can reveal much about social norms and behaviours. Divorce cases can also lead directly to legislative reform, e.g. Owens v. Owens (2018) led directly to the passing of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2022, which made it possible for couples living in England and Wales to divorce without ascribing blame to either party, something unimaginable when divorce first became a concern of the state under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857. Much contemporary family law legislation can be traced directly back to the 1857 Act, yet historic data about the lived experiences of the men, women and children who appeared before this first family court is currently unknown. Moreover, without a methodological framework to examine the poorly indexed court records (held under J77 at The National Archives), such information is unknowable. This project will address these shortcomings using a new, multidisciplinary methodology that combines mixed-method historical approaches with feminist legal theory and digital humanities. An innovative relational database, designed by the Principal Investigator, will enable the systematic examination of petitions made to the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes from its establishment in 1858 to 1923.

This is an image of the front cover of a case file from the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. There is writing on the front of the document, which is illegible, but it will include the names of the litigants involved in the case and the dates of the different stages of the legal process.

Example of a Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Case File (J77 Series, The National Archives)

This is a screenshot image of a form from the project's database. The wording at the top of the form says, 'Master Person Table' Below are separate lines with boxes to fill in with information. It says First Name - Alfred. Surname - Vincent. Sex -Male. Date of Birth - 05/04/1870. Place of Birth - London. County of Birth - Middlesex. Country of Birth - England. Birth archive ref - left blank. Date of Death - 10/06/1923. Place of Death - London. County of Death - Middlesex. Country of Death - England. Death archive ref - left blank. Below are two arrows pointing left and right. And below that is a tab named 'Add new person'. To the right of all this information are tabs running left to right called: Education, Occupation, Social activities, Marriage, Children, Probate, Census. The Marriage tab is highlighted and open, with the following information inputted. Date of marriage - 02/11/1902. Church of Marriage - Brides. Town/City of Marriage - London. County of Marriage - Middlesex. Country of Marriage - England.

Example of one of the forms from the project's database.

What will the project database do?

The project will create a database that consists of two smaller interlinked databases. The first uses core information about the case itself to create an Individual Case Record (ICR), and the second to create Individual Person Records (IPR). IPRs can be attached to multiple ICRs. The names of solicitors, barristers, clerks, judges, petitioners, respondents, and co-respondent(s), including their occupation, address, details of marriage, legal grounds of the petition, details of any children and related custody arrangements, along with the decision reached by the court, will also be recorded. There are also a small number of cases where an IPR outside of the legal professions is attached to multiple ICR. For example, Nadine Sophie Charlotte Brinkley appears as a child and later (twice) as a petitioner, offering the exciting opportunity to examine the longitudinal socio-economic effects of divorce in the 19th and 20th century. Systematically examining the J 77 files using the innovative relational database will answer direct queries about the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, its officers, and the couples who appeared before it. 

The resulting dataset will be interrogated to address 4 key research strands (click on the following links to read more about each of them):

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