Welcome to ‘New Histories of Divorce’ 

Welcome to the Blog Series of the ‘New Histories of Divorce’ project. My name is Dr Jennifer Aston, and I am the Principal Investigator on the project and an Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University. This project came about after I (like so many scholars before me) fell down an archival rabbit hole at The National Archives, Kew. I should have been researching the bankruptcies of small businesses in England and Wales between 1891 and 1914, but I found that my attention kept returning to three files, each belonging to titled women who had entered bankruptcy proceedings. One of them had a serious penchant for shopping and after several warnings about the level of her spending her father refused to cover her bills; another was sued for damages after she had injured a group of people while riding her horse recklessly through Hyde Park; the third woman had been forced into bankruptcy after being issued with a judgment for £5000 when her lover’s wife accused her of libel and slander, which she was unable to pay because her own husband had divorced her after discovering the affair. Eager to know more about the circumstances that led to the libel case and the unravelling of the two marriages I called up their divorce files, held in the J 77 collection.  

I was immediately struck by the sheer amount of data that the petitions contain. Despite the heavy pruning that has been carried out on the files – particularly of evidence presented to the Court – they reveal information about the respondents and co-respondents of the case, children of the marriage, the jobs and homes of those involved, the legal teams used, costs associated with bringing and defending the petitions, and, of course, details about the marriage itself and the alleged grounds for divorce. One of the most exciting things within the files are the statements made by named parties in the case. This is where the petitioner set out their case explaining how their husband or wife’s behaviour met the stringent grounds for divorce as set out under the Divorce Act 1857 and the co-respondents in the case also had the opportunity to reply to these accusations, giving their version of events. My previous experience of working with interrelational databases allowed me to see how taking a similar methodological approach would enable the story of the Court – and the way it functioned over time – to be combined with the human stories of the people who appeared before it. Understanding the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ experiences of the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes will create a totally new perspective of relationship breakdowns in England and Wales, 1858-1923.  

Over the next 18 months we (me and Senior Research Assistant to the project, Dr Diane Ranyard) will be bringing you news of the public engagement activities with our project partner at The National Archives, conferences and workshops we’ll be attending and hosting, and publications based on our research. We’ll also have a series of short blogs explaining more about the Divorce Court; how it functioned and the divorce and matrimonial cases that were heard there (including vignettes of interesting cases);  how to use Divorce Court records in your own research (whether for academic study or your own family history); and much, much more about the weird and wonderful information you’ll find within them. 

Make sure to follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @Divorce_History or Facebook where we’ll regularly post news about the project, and links to the blogs on the projects website.