Divorce_History

Do you work on #domesticabuse #divorce #economicabuse #childcustody in the third sector/policy? Then we have the workshop for you! 'Archives to Action' is a free 1-day workshop exploring the important role archival research can play in policy reform. Details 👇
www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Calling all #lawyers #policymakers #charityworkers #genealogists #familyhistorians #archivists! This FREE workshop on 20 Jan 2026 will showcase #divorce project findings & welcome speakers from policy, practice & the 3rd sector to highlight the power of #archival research. In person/hybrid. Details👇

All are welcome and lunch is provided but registration is required www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

With an exciting programme of speakers from policy, practice, and the third sector, this workshop showcases our project findings & highlights the vital role that historical archival research can play in understanding inequalities of the past and positively shaping the future.

Archives to Action: Historical Evidence for Policy Reform This one-day workshop showcases the results of a groundbreaking two-year interdisciplinary project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council: 'A New Methodological Approach to the History of ...

See below for details of a FREE one-day workshop 'Archives to Action: Historical Evidence for Policy Reform in Marital Breakdown, Domestic Abuse, and Child Welfare' held @northumbriauni.bsky.social on Tuesday 20 January 2026.

www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Four people stood in front of a Society of Legal Scholars vertical banner. Three of the people are holding certificates, the other is President of the SLS and has presented the awards.

A certificate with black text on a cream background awarding 'Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce' 2nd prize in the 2025 Margaret Brazier Prize for Outstanding Mid-career Scholarship.

I won a prize 🥳 Well, Deserted Wives did 😍 📖
Thank you to The Society of Legal Scholars for a lovely evening and wonderful recognition. I am very grateful (as the cheesy grin shows!)

Deserted Wives currently has 30% off:
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

#19thC #WomensHistory #sls2025

At the World Economic History Congress in Lund? wehc2025.com #WEHC2025 Dr Jennifer Aston will be giving a paper ‘Marital Status and Credit: navigating the legal constraints of being a married woman in England and Wales 1850–1925’ on 29th July 2025 from 9.30-10.30am in Universitetshuset, Room 125.

A poster advertising the 'Wills Project Transcribathon' on Thursday 24 July, 1-4pm BST, in the Digital Humanities Lab at the University of Exeter, and on zoom. The poster features black text on green and yellow backgrounds, and three images - a box of folded will manuscripts, an unfolded will manuscript, and the painting Thomas Braithwaite of Ambleside making his will, Abbot Hall, 1607. Photo: Lakeland Arts. The poster text reads: ' - Transcribe on Zooniverse alongside like-minded volunteers, - Learn more about English wills from 1540-1790 during talks from the experts, - Share & discuss interesting discoveries, - Attend for all or part of the event, - Contribute to academic research & help make these remarkable documents more accessible for all'.

📢OUR TRANSCRIBATHON IS TODAY!📢

Online registration has now closed, but if you missed out then DM me and I can provide a workaround ... we wouldn't want anyone to miss the chance to read some lovely wills!

#EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social

🌟 Celebrating Outstanding Legal Scholarship 🌟 | The Society of Legal Scholars 🌟 Celebrating Outstanding Legal Scholarship 🌟 We're delighted to share the shortlisted nominees for the SLS 2025 Peter Birks Prizes for Outstanding Early Career Legal Scholarship and the Margaret...

I'm beyond thrilled that 'Deserted Wives & Economic Divorce' has been shortlisted for the The Society of Legal Scholars Margaret Brazier Prize 2025. It is wonderful to see Deserted Wives recognised in this way & to share the shortlist with such brilliant authors 🤩

www.linkedin.com/posts/societ...

Thank you for coming @djrgrey.bsky.social! And thanks also to my amazing fellow panellists @sophiemhistory.bsky.social & @ellasbaraini.bsky.social. My first @socialhistsoc.bsky.social conference has been an amazing experience so far - presenting in a pub was a first! 🍻#SHSConf2025

If you’re at #SHSConf2025 join @drjenniferaston.bsky.social who’s presenting a paper called ‘Navigating Mental Illness in the Pre-1937 Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes’ on Tuesday 7th July 2025 as part of Panel 4 from 2.15-3.45pm in the E & C Lounge. More details here: shorturl.at/ojU0z

Thank you so much to Prof. Sharon Thompson for her amazing review of 'Deserted Wives'.

"It is a shining example of the best of legal history." 🤩

Please consider ordering it for your library 📖
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

Very pleased with the cover design for my new book, The Secret Life of the Hotel! Thanks ‪@bloomsburyhist.bsky.social

Aston’s research and unconventional ‘collaboration’ has resulted in a work with elements of the detective story juxtaposed with two women’s love for their research, alongside a cast of wives the authors ‘met’ along the way. Perhaps the overriding lesson is not to believe conventional wisdom when it comes to women’s history, but to prise open the real story – and to experiment with writing history in new ways. Chloe Challender, University of Warwick

The first review of Deserted Wives has been published and it's a lovely one 🥳 The full review is here www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... but I've included a snippet below. Thank you so much @chloechallender.bsky.social 🙏
📖 available here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

An off-centre close-up photo of a dark grey tote bag with the Law and Society Association logo and title. The logo is a square grid of 9 different sized images in 3 rows of 3. They are (from top and left to right) a close up of a white grecian column on a maroon background. A pink silhouette of a swallow on a dark lavender background. The Disability Pride Flag with pink, yellow, white, blue and green stripes on a grey background. A close-up of a brown and black eye with a dilated black pupil and dark grey iris. A grey open padlock in a red circle on a grey background with red drops. A brown hand in a manacle and chains reaching up on a purple background. The intersex inclusive pride flag with a series of arrow shapes on yellow, white, blue, brown and black with a blue circle pointing into horizontal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and blue. An image of a uterus, fallopian tube, ovary and vagina in white and pale pink on a dark pink background. A close up of half a butterfly with a green body and lavender wings, the top wing is crumbled and broken. The title of the conference is Politics of the Body at the Crossroads.

The Sex, Gender and the Law session has been an amazing way to start LSA2025 in Chicago. Female business ownership, family law, divorce and legal history - just a few of my favourite things 😍
Also worth noting the top logo-ing from #LSAChicago

The perfect accompaniment to a morning cuppa ☕️ Take 5 mins to read the latest @divorcehistory.bsky.social blog, which explores if second time is the charm...

Image Citation: The National Archives; London, England, UK; Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, later Supreme Court of Judicature: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Files, J 77; Reference Number: J 77/715/1722; Series Number: J 77; Piece Number: 715

Image Description: The marriage certificate for Mary Alice and John Burke’s second marriage on 15 February 1896 from the divorce case file J 77/715/1722

...had deserted him in September 1900 after informing him that ‘she did not intend to live with him again’. If you’d like to find out what happened next, and why we saw Mary Alice and John Burke back in the Divorce Court you can read our latest blog here shorturl.at/F6F80 (16/16)

...Restitution of Conjugal Rights on the grounds of her husband's desertion and failure to render conjugal rights. Less than a month later, on 3 April 1901, John himself filed a petition for a divorce in which he made a counter allegation that he had not deserted his wife, and in fact she...(15/16)

...remarriage they lived together at 30 Bramham Gardens, Kensington, London and on 9 October 1897 they welcomed a daughter, Yvonne Lilian Gervaise Burke. On 11 March 1901, when John Lawrence was ten years old and Yvonne Lilian Gervaise age four, Mary Alice filed a petition for a Decree of...(14/16)

...clear they were divorcees. This creative interpretation of their legal status was not unheard of, although it is not clear whether they were seeking to deceive people with regard to their marital status or just putting the ‘best’ spin on their circumstances. After John and Mary Alice’s...(13/16)

...decided to remarry. The marriage took place at the Register Office in the District of St George in Hanover Square London. The marriage certificate reveals some potentially misleading details, with John describing himself as a Bachelor and Mary Alice as a Widow, rather than making it... (12/16)

...1895, John and Mary Alice’s marriage formally ended when a decree absolute was granted. This should have been the end of the story for John and Mary Alice and the end of their joint involvement with the Divorce Court, but, just over four months later, on 15 February 1896, they... (11/16)

...March 1895 the case went to trial at the Divorce Court in front of The Right Honourable Sir Francis Henry Jeune, who found Mary Alice guilty of adultery with Francis Balfour Carr, and granted John a decree nisi and custody of their child John Lawrence. A few months later on 8 October...(10/16)

...years. As a husband petitioning for a divorce, John only had to prove his wife’s adultery, which he alleged took place ‘during the month of September 1894’ at the Hotel de la Plage in the Republic of France and on the 6 and 7 of October 1894 at 27 Craven Street, Strand, Middlesex. On 26...(9/16)

...John Lawrence Burke, was born. It’s on the 9 October 1894 that we see the couple involved with the Divorce Court for the first time when John Burke petitioned for a divorce from Mary Alice on the grounds of her adultery with Francis Balfour Carr. They had been married for only four... (8/16)

On the marriage certificate Mary Alice was listed as a Widow and John as a Bachelor with the occupation of Gentleman, though later documents list him as a merchant. After their marriage they lived at Plas Dinan in Cambridge and then Birch Hall in Windlesham, and on 22 July 1891 their son... (7/16)

...2nd cousin on 2 July 1890, (both Mary Alice’s husbands had the same paternal great-grandparents and had connections to the Guinness brewing family). Somewhat confusingly, her second husband was also called John Burke. Their marriage took place at the Parish Church in Binfield, Berkshire...(6/16)

...died on 24 October 1887 in Rajanpur, Punjab, while serving in the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. This left Mary Alice a very young widower at only 20 years old, with two infant children to care for. Following a period of mourning, Mary Alice married her late husband’s... (5/16)