Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th-Century England and Wales - by Jennifer Aston & Olive Anderson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Acts and their use by married women to reclaim voting rights and rights of testation, inheritance and property ownership.

Book Synopsis

This book considers Section 21 of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 and its significant impact on previously invisible married women in the 19th century.

Tens of thousands of women used this little-known section of the Act to apply for orders from local magistrates' courts to reclaim their rights of testation, inheritance, property ownership, and (dependent on local franchise qualifications) ability to vote. By examining the orders that were made and considering the women who applied for them, the book challenges the mistaken belief that Victorian England and Wales were nations of married, cohabiting couples.

The detailed statistical analysis and rich case studies presented here provide a totally new perspective on the legal status and experiences of married women in England and Wales. Although many thousands of orders were granted between 1858 and 1900, their details remain unknown and unexamined, primarily because census records did not consistently record dissolved marriages and there is no central index of applications made.

Using sources including court records, parliamentary papers, newspaper reports, census returns, probate records and trade directories, this book reconstructs the successful - and unsuccessful - experiences of women applying to magistrates' courts and the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes to protect their assets across regions and decades.

Review Quotes

Building on Olive Anderson's pioneering work, Jennifer Aston has produced a brilliant modern analysis of a little known but vitally important section in England's first divorce law - a significant contribution to women's legal history.
Professor Rosemary Auchmuty, Professor of Law, Reading University, UK

This fascinating exploration of a little-known provision provides an important new perspective on law-making, legal officeholders, and the protection accorded to women as economic actors in mid-Victorian England.
Professor Rebecca Probert, Professor of Law, Exeter University, UK

This groundbreaking work is a major contribution to legal and social history and has much to offer anyone interested in the history of married women's property rights. For the first time, the significance of a now obsolete legal provision is brought to the fore, skillfully and powerfully revealing the forgotten stories of how so many shed the oppressive chains of coverture, while challenging long-standing assumptions about the economic and legal status of Victorian deserted wives.
Professor Sharon Thompson, Reader in Law, Cardiff University, UK

About the Author

Jennifer Aston is Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University, UK.
Olive Anderson was Professor of History at Westfield College, University of London, UK.