{"id":4643,"date":"2025-01-05T17:25:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T17:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/?p=4643"},"modified":"2025-01-05T17:25:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T17:25:05","slug":"the-court-is-not-likely-to-languish-for-lack-of-work-during-the-ensuing-sittings-january-the-busiest-time-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/the-court-is-not-likely-to-languish-for-lack-of-work-during-the-ensuing-sittings-january-the-busiest-time-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The court&#8230;is not likely to languish for lack of work during the ensuing sittings\u2019: January, the busiest time of the year.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-1024x593.jpg\" alt=\"The image is a black and white sketch of the inside of the Divorce Court from 1910, which is a large room. The central focus of the image is a woman dressed in a hat and dress who is stood at the witness box\/stand, and she is being questioned by a legal professional who is dressed in a long black gown and a wig. He is stood up on the right of the image and is surrounded by other men who are sat down and dressed in similar clothing. On the left-hand side of the image is a man sat high up behind a desk who is the judge. He is also dressed in a black gown and wig, and he is reading some papers in front of him. In front of him is a larger desk with five men in suits sat writing or reading and there are books and papers piled up on the desk. At the back of the image behind the woman at the witness box\/stand are another 12 men who are sat in what appears to be a public gallery.\" class=\"wp-image-4638\" style=\"width:600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-1024x593.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-768x445.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-1536x890.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-1-Inside-the-Divorce-Court-2048x1186.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The inside of the Divorce Court \n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Saturday 1 January 1898, Mrs Amelia Reade [referred to as Maud Amelia in newspaper reports] wrote a short letter (see image below) to her estranged husband Beaumont Russell Reade in which she said \u2018I voluntarily confess to having misconducted myself with E. Durand on several occasions and I am willing to sign a document to this effect drawn up by my husbands (sic) solicitors\u2019. By virtue of the <a href=\"https:\/\/archives.parliament.uk\/collections\/getrecord\/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1857_20and21V1n262\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Matrimonial Causes Act 1857<\/em><\/a> requiring adultery to be proven in every divorce petition, the <a href=\"https:\/\/discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/details\/r\/C9685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">J 77 case files<\/a> are full of reports of adultery, but a confession like that written by Amelia is unusual. Two days later, and normal working life recommenced.\u00a0 Beaumont Russell Reade visited his solicitor at H.S. Harris &amp; Co., and on the 7 January 1898, a petition for divorce was filed at the Principal Registry in London citing Amelia\u2019s adultery with one of Beaumont\u2019s friends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, the first Monday of the year is known as Divorce Day, a time when spouses are most likely to start the process of divorce or separation, following Christmas and New Year. As we discussed in <a href=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/finding-the-words-descriptions-of-domestic-abuse-in-the-victorian-divorce-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">our previous blog<\/a>, the festive period can be a difficult time for those in unhappy or abusive relationships, leading to a spike in calls to support helplines and solicitors, once children return to school and spouses return to work. For Beaumont, a wealthy gentleman, it appears that the strain of playing happy families following the revelation of Amelia\u2019s affair had brought him to breaking point.&nbsp; He stated in his petition \u2018that on the 8<sup>th<\/sup> day of May 1897 and on other days between that day and the 31<sup>st<\/sup> day of December 1897 the said Amelia Reade at \u201cYeronga\u201d Stanley Street Bedford [the marital home] aforesaid committed adultery with Edward Durand of Ashmore Road Westbourne Park Paddington in the County of London.\u2019 Newspaper reports on the case help flesh out the details of what happened and the events leading up to Amelia writing her confession letter.&nbsp; <em>Lloyd\u2019s Weekly Newspaper <\/em>recounted how Beaumont often went on bicycling tours<em>,<\/em> leaving his wife alone. Upon returning from one tour, he confronted his wife about her \u2018misconduct\u2019 with Edward and Amelia \u2018&#8230;burst into tears, and there was a great scene between them. Afterwards she admitted that she had been unfaithful, and unusually she then voluntarily wrote out a confession to that effect.\u2019&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"711\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade-711x1024.jpg\" alt=\"The image is of a letter on a sheet of cream coloured paper. At the top in black ink are printed the words \u2018\u201cYeronga\u201d Stanley Street, Bedford\u2019 Below this handwritten in black ink is a date \u2018Jan 1st 98\u2019 and then the following words \u2018I voluntarily confess to having misconducted myself with E. Durand on several occasions and I am willing to sign a document to this effect drawn up by my husbands (sic) solicitors\u2019 Followed by the signature \u2018Amelia Reade\u2019 and below this the words \u2018To Mr. B. Reade.\u2019\" class=\"wp-image-4640\" style=\"width:400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade-711x1024.jpg 711w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade-768x1106.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade-1067x1536.jpg 1067w, https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Image-2-Letter-of-Confession-of-adultery-from-Amelia-Reade-to-Mr-B-Reade.jpg 1364w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A letter of confession to adultery from Amelia Reade to Mr. B. Reade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case went to trial on 28 February 1898, just over a month after the petition was filed, and the President of the Divorce Court, the Right Honorable Sir Francis Henry Jeune granted Beaumont a <em>decree nisi<\/em>. Amelia and Edward did not appear at the trial or defend themselves against the allegations. As Amelia was found to be guilty of adultery, the co-respondent Edward was ordered to pay all the costs. Judge Jeune also made a decision on the custody of the four children from the marriage (aged between 4 to 11 years old). As the \u2018innocent\u2019 party in the case, Beaumont was granted custody of the children. As the \u2018guilty\u2019 party, Amelia had no legal right to have access to her children and it appears that they went away to boarding school, living with Beaumont before going on to marry. It doesn\u2019t appear that Amelia had any further contact with them. Just over six months later, on 14 September 1898, The Honorable Sir Walter G. F. Phillimore Baronet (one of the Justices of the High Court who was sitting as a Vacation Judge at the time) granted a <em>decree absolute<\/em>. This legally ended the 13-year marriage between Beaumont and Amelia and enabled them to remarry (if they chose to).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, who was the co-respondent in the Reade divorce? According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ancestry.co.uk\/search\/collections\/2465\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">J 77 files<\/a>, Edward Durand lived at 138 Ashmore Road in Paddington, London and although the electoral registers at the time do show an Edward Durand registered at this address, they do not contain any further information. Newspaper reports covering the trial in the Divorce Court make it clear he was a friend of Beaumont\u2019s who had been welcomed into the marital home he shared with Amelia. But what the newspaper reports don\u2019t tell us is his full name, only referring to him as \u2018the Co-Respondent&#8217; or just by his surname, \u2018Durand\u2019 or as \u2018Mr. Durand\u2019. This contrasted with the way that Beaumont and Amelia were described using their full first and family names in the newspaper reports, making it clear who they were while protecting Edward Durand from some scrutiny from the publicity. If \u2018our\u2019 Edward Durand was Sir Edward Durand, 1<sup>st<\/sup> Baronet of Ruckley Grange then this could have been a deliberate ploy of the press barons. Genealogy records tell us that Sir Edward Durand was a similar age to Beaumont and could have been mixing in similar circles in London but the only hint that the Edward Durand involved in this case was Sir Edward Durand, is linked to money. As we\u2019ve already mentioned, at the <em>decree nisi<\/em> trial on 28 February 1898, the Co-Respondent was ordered to pay the Petitioner\u2019s costs from the proceedings. At the same time as the Court made this order, Sir Edward Durand put all the stock and effects of Ruckley Wood Farm up for sale by auction, something which was advertised in multiple newspapers. Was this to pay the legal costs from the case?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What happened to Beaumont and Amelia in the aftermath of the divorce? We have struggled to find any record of Amelia after the divorce was finalised, and so what happened to her remains a mystery. Beaumont doesn\u2019t appear to have remarried and at the point of the 1901 census he lived at 2 Stanley Street in Bedford with their 7-year-old son. By the 1911 census he had moved to 86 Gladstone Street, Bedford and lived with their 24-year-old daughter Henrietta. He was recorded as divorced and a retired tea planter. He died in 1933 in London.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">January was always a busy month for solicitors as they translated the woes of unhappily married husbands and wives into petitions for the Divorce Court but, as an upcoming blog will show, being unhappily married did not necessarily translate into a successful petition.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Make sure to follow us on <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/divorcehistory.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Blue Sky<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> , <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/new_divorce_history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Instagram<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>, <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@new_divorce_history?xmt=AQGz0rZB2JY5hegjXbG7VbfN75Gtpr2QfHoDCa9KoUOFSpM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Threads<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>,\u00a0or <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/New-Histories-of-Divorce-for-Family-Historians-Genealogists\/61561076532076\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Facebook<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> where we\u2019ll regularly post news about the project, and links to the blogs on the projects <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>website<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong>\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday 1 January 1898, Mrs Amelia Reade [referred to as Maud Amelia in newspaper reports] wrote a short letter (see image below) to her estranged husband Beaumont Russell Reade in which she said \u2018I voluntarily confess to having misconducted myself with E. Durand on several occasions and I am willing to sign a document [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,50,68,36,114,43,74,52],"class_list":["post-4643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adultery","tag-ancestry","tag-desertion","tag-divorce-court","tag-divorce-day","tag-genealogy","tag-legal-history","tag-the-national-archives"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018The court...is not likely to languish for lack of work during the ensuing sittings\u2019: January, the busiest time of the year.\u00a0 - A New Methodological Approach to the History of Divorce, 1857-1923<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/divorce_history\/the-court-is-not-likely-to-languish-for-lack-of-work-during-the-ensuing-sittings-january-the-busiest-time-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018The court...is not likely to languish for lack of work during the ensuing sittings\u2019: January, the busiest time of the year.\u00a0 - A New Methodological Approach to the History of Divorce, 1857-1923\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Saturday 1 January 1898, Mrs Amelia Reade [referred to as Maud Amelia in newspaper reports] wrote a short letter (see image below) to her estranged husband Beaumont Russell Reade in which she said \u2018I voluntarily confess to having misconducted myself with E. 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