Butler, Meagan Lee (2014) "Husbands without wives, and wives without husbands": divorce and separation in Scotland, c. 1830-1890. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5264/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten:Theses http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] “Husbands without wives, and wives without husbands”: Divorce and Separation in Scotland, c. 1830-1890 Meagan Lee Butler BS (Hons), MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Economic and Social History School of Social and Political Sciences College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow May 2014 2 Abstract This thesis explores divorce and judicial separation as it occurred in nineteenth-century Scotland, between the years 1830 and 1890, predating the phenomenon it came to be in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As Scotland’s history has frequently been incorporated within a general history of Great Britain, this thesis separates it from the widely researched accounts of marriage and marital breakdown in England to highlight the different approach to regulating marriage, divorce and separation under Scots law. Applying Scotland’s distinctive legal, demographic and economic context has provided a social and gender history of marriage breakdown unique to the country, and filled a historiographical gap for the nineteenth century. This research will be presented through separate analyses of divorce for adultery, desertion—both official and unofficial, and marital cruelty in the civil and criminal courts. To present individual experiences inside the courtroom, Court of Session divorce and separation cases are used and supplemented with newspaper accounts of Court of Session trials. To provide context to the related discourses, Parliamentary papers and newspaper articles are used. Lastly, to address the unofficial instances of marital breakdown, criminal court trials of wifebeating and poor relief applications from deserted wives are also analysed. This thesis argues that despite comparably liberal divorce and separation laws established in the sixteenth century, legal, economic, social and cultural factors and discourses imposed on the accessibility of these legal forms of marital breakdown. Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ 5 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... 6 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 9 Historical Gaps: Expanding on the Scottish Experience ................................................................ 11 Sources and Methodology ............................................................................................................ 17 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................................ 22 Chapter One: Legal Context of Scots Marriage, Divorce and Judicial Separation Law in the Nineteenth Century ..................................................................................................... 26 Overview of Scottish Marriage Law .............................................................................................. 27 Divorce Law in Scotland ................................................................................................................ 32 Judicial Separation and Marital Cruelty in Scots Law ................................................................... 34 Legislative Change in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century ............................................... 41 Chapter Two: General Trends of Scottish Divorce and Judicial Separation ................... 52 Population and Marriage in Scotland ........................................................................................... 52 Perceptions and Accessibility of Divorce and Separation ............................................................. 56 Discovering Trends with Parliamentary Papers and Census Reports ........................................... 68 Trends and Patterns in the Court of Session Records ................................................................... 81 Chapter Three: Divorce and Adultery ................................................................................. 89 Found Patterns of Adultery in Court of Session Sample Study ................................................... 101 The Adulterous Spouse and the Paramour ................................................................................. 116 Excuses for Adultery: Insight into Scottish lives ......................................................................... 122 Chapter Four: Divorce and Desertion................................................................................ 129 Official Desertion in Court of Session Divorce Records .............................................................. 135 Unofficial Desertion in Poor Relief Records ................................................................................ 149 Chapter Five: Separation and Cruelty, Part I................................................................... 175 4 Contemporary Discourse on Wife Beating in Scotland ............................................................... 181 Chapter Five: Separation and Cruelty, Part II ................................................................. 197 Introduction: Sources and Findings in Court of Session Judicial Separation and Criminal Court Cases ........................................................................................................................................... 197 Cruelty as Defined by Scots Law and Forms of Violence and Abuse Found in Cases ................. 198 The Evolution of Mental Abuse as Cruelty .................................................................................. 212 Marital Cruelty and Children ....................................................................................................... 216 Sources of Conflict and Provocation in Separation Cases and Criminal Court Cases ................. 221 Perceptions of Marital Violence.................................................................................................. 230 Intervention and Relationships ................................................................................................... 232 Conclusion: Continuity and Change in Nineteenth-Century Scottish Divorce and Separation ............................................................................................................................. 241 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 251 List of Tables Table I.1 Court of Session Source Data Sets 19 Table 2.1 Scottish Marriages per Year in Comparison with Population in Scotland 54 Table 2.2 Cost of Trials, Court of Session Cases, 1830-1880 63 Table 2.3 Socioeconomic Status of Litigants with Listed Occupations, Court of Session 67 Table 2.4 Scottish Marriage, Divorce and Population Trends 72 Table 2.5 Court of Session Decrees, Benchmark Years, 1830-1880 86 Table 2.6 Gender Comparison by Decree and Cause, Court of Session, Benchmark Years, 1830-1880 87 Table 3.1 Sample Set of Court of Session Divorce for Adultery Cases 90 Table 4.1 Length of Marriage up to Desertion, Court of Session Cases 135 Table 4.2 Interval between Desertion and Action, Court of Session Cases 136 Table 4.3 Length of Divorce for Desertion Action, Court of Session Cases 136 Table 4.4 Presence of Children in Court of Session Desertion Cases 137 Table 4.5 Number of Poor Relief Application of Deserted Wives Collected 162 Table 4.6 Length between Marriage and Desertion, PRA Paisley 163 Table 4.7 Interval between Desertion and Action, PRA Paisley 163 Table 4.8 Ages of Applicants Listed as Deserted Wives, Poor Relief 163 Table 4.9 Wholly or Partially Disabled, Poor Relief 166 Table 4.10 Result of Application, Poor Relief 170 Table 5.1 Residence & Occupations of Separation & Aliment Case Couples 200 Table 5.2 Marriage and Cruelty, Court of Session Cases 201 Table 5.3 Criminal Courts Where Sample of Wifebeating Cases were Tried, 1831-1896 203 Table 5.4 Sample of Wifebeating Cases Tried in Criminal Courts & Reported by Local Newspapers, 1831-1896 205 Table 5.5 Children and Cruelty, Court of Session Cases 218 Table 5.6 Provocation & Drink Defences Found in Wifebeating Cases Tried in Criminal Courts and Reported by Local Newspapers, 1831-1896 225 Graph 2.1 No. of Marriages per 100,000 People in Scotland