In the 1890s could people get divorced or get an annulment?

Question

I'm working on a film script and I'm a little confused with my history - a woman in the script gets married and then 3 years later ends up with another man - would this be acceptable in the 1890s? thanks for the help.

Answer 1

In the 1890'2 you could abuse your child and recieve a less sentence in jail than if you beat your horse! Divorce as far as I know of was acceptable back then but not a common practice as it is now. Usually you stayed together for bad or worse til death did you part no matter what. Kind of a saving face thing (can't let the town know I failed as a wife/husband etc) Now at the drop of a hat it is off to the divorce court. What a sad state marriage has become

Answer 2

What you are suggesting would most certainly not be acceptable in 1890s Victorian UK.

Divorce in UK was only made possible as recently as the 1960s. As for a woman going off to live with another man, totally unacceptable.

God help any woman who became pregnant out of wedlock.

I was born in 1941 and surrounded by Victorians and Edwardians. Moral attitudes and codes were very high and strictly enforced. What happened behind the scenes is anyone's business.

Life today is a million times better than it was back then. Most of the reforms took place in the 1960s. A quiet revolution happened, which was driven not by the young but by an older generation who had suffered in two world wars and were having no more of it.

Answer 3

Divorce has been around as long as marriage has, but it used to be FAR MORE scandalous in the US than it is today. Divorce in the US didnt become an everyday thing until the 1970's. Through most of the 1800's and early 1900's a divorced person would have been gossiped about and held in contempt by many people.

I hope that helps.

Also an annulment is usually only an option in marriages that have been of very short duration and one of the supposed conditions is that the marriage was never consumated (no sex was involved). Mmmm hmmm. Right.

Answer 4

Divorce was 'looked down upon' in Victorian England and you had to have a lot of money to pay the legal costs (there was no legal aid), so it was not an option for most unhappily married people. People would either stay together or informally separate without ending their marriage. This would presumably result in more desertion of spouses and children (at a time when there was little welfare state provision) bigamy and domestic violence. In the upper classes (who could afford the financial costs), divorce was regarded as scandolous, so again it was rare. The rich could presumably afford to lead separate lives and 'fund' a mistress. The grounds for divorce were more restricted than now, I think it was just non consummation and/or adultery, although it may have been moderated to include emotional/physical abuse by the 1880's/'90's.

Answer 5

Until 1858 divorce could only be obtained by an expensive act of Parliament. Ecclesiastical courts could grant legal separations, but these did not permit either partner to remarry. From 1858 a new court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes was established, which became part of the High Court in 1875 in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. Indexes to divorce decrees absolute are held by the Principal Registry of the Family Division, who will undertake a search for a fee and provide copies of the decrees absolute if the divorce was granted in the High Court, or arrange for a copy to be sent to you from a county court. If you want to know the grounds for divorce you need to request details from the decree nisi as well.Surviving divorce case files and papers are held in The National Archives in the series J 77, with indexes in J 78. Most case files survive from 1858 to 1927, but only about 80% survive from 1928 to 1937. After 1937, only a tiny sample of some 250 files survive as examples of different types of divorce case. No case files survive after 1954.

Answer 6

In the days when divorce was v difficult for ordinary people (as outlined by a previous answerer), people often left one partner and set up as husband and wife with someone else. This was especially true among the working class and is often shown in literature of the time, eg Thomas Hardy. The Victorians may have been v straightlaced on the outside, but the reality of life for ordinary people was v different.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

It was really only possible for the rich to get this as it was necessary to have an expensive lawyer.
It was rarely done and considered a social disgrace for both parties even up to the 1950s

Answer 9

To my reckoning and films and books i have seen and read,It did happen but it was not acceptable,if you dont find the right answer you can always go to the libary,or even look it up on the internet..Good luck in your script..

Answer 10

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RE :In the 1890s could people get divorced or get an annulment?
I'm working on a film script and I'm a little confused with my history - a woman in the script gets married and then 3 years later ends up with another man - would this be acceptable in the 1890s? thanks for the help.
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