Divorce records UK mid 1800s

[Grissell]

Looking for records of divorce in the UK in 1830-1850s.  Can anyone help?

[stanmapstone]

 In 1857 an Act of Parliament first introduced the possibility of being granted a divorce in a civil court in England and Wales, before 1857 a divorce could only be granted by a private Act of Parliament. Even after 1857 a divorce was expensive and out of the range of ordinary working people. The cost was 120GBP if uncontested but up to 800GBP if contested, and took about a year.
The cost remained prohibitive for many until the introduction of legal aid for divorce in 1950 and no-fault divorce in 1969.


Stan

[Annie65115]

Goodness me, those figures were eyewateringly expensive for those days!

Stan, do you know how much an uncontested divorce case would have cost in 1914?

[stanmapstone]

The only mention of divorce costs that I can find in 'The Times' is in the case of Kemp v Welch, May 1910, where the husband was ordered to pay his wife's costs which were £296. This seems to be equivalent to about £20,000 using the retail price index. There are a couple of bankruptcies where divorce costs were given as the reason.

Stan

[Annie65115]

My gt-grandmother tried to divorce her husband in 1914. He had long since lived in a different town and didn't turn up for the court hearing.

My poor gt-grnnie had to go to London and be cross-examined before the Lord High-and-Mighty about what her husband had put her through. In his summing up, the judge said that the court accepted her pretty awful story as a true and accurate version of events and found in her favour --

--but he was going to refuse her permissin to divorce anyway. No reason given. 

[Grissell]

Thanks all, I think there is no way my ancestors could have afforded a divorce.  Thinking now that the first marriage?? didn't happen.  Got record of marriage in 1854 and that will do.  Thanks again.
Grissell