Author Topic: grounds for annulment  (Read 1122 times)

Offline Bigfeet

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grounds for annulment
« on: Tuesday 24 February 15 13:55 GMT (UK) »
Is anybody aware as to whether an asylum admission of a spouse under the 'lunacy' legislations in force in the late 1800s-early 1900s would constitute grounds for the annulment/dissolution of a marriage?

Offline jim1

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Re: grounds for annulment
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 24 February 15 14:10 GMT (UK) »
1857 Divorce Act says;
Nullity, in which a marriage might be declared null and void if there were a prior legal marriage by either party, or insanity or permanent impotence at the time of marriage, or where the marriage had been obtained by force, fraud or imposition, or was within the prohibited degrees or took place before a decree absolute was granted. Such petitions were very infrequent.
Warks:Ashford;Cadby;Clarke;Clifford;Cooke Copage;Easthope;
Edmonds;Felton;Colledge;Lutwyche;Mander(s);May;Poole;Withers.
Staffs.Edmonds;Addison;Duffield;Webb;Fisher;Archer
Salop:Easthope,Eddowes,Hoorde,Oteley,Vernon,Talbot,De Neville.
Notts.Clarke;Redfearne;Treece.
Som.May;Perriman;Cox
India Kane;Felton;Cadby
London.Haysom.
Lancs.Gay.
Worcs.Coley;Mander;Sawyer.
Kings of Wessex & Scotland
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Offline stanmapstone

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Re: grounds for annulment
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 24 February 15 14:11 GMT (UK) »
An annulment means that, legally, the marriage has never happened. Marriages can be annulled if they are 'void' or 'voidable'. A void marriage has never come into real existence because of some fundamental legal defect. Petitions for nullity or annulment of marriage were relatively rare.
See 6.3 and 6.4 Annulments at
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/divorce-after-1858.htm
See also Nullity at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Divorce_in_England_and_Wales
Stan
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Offline Bigfeet

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Re: grounds for annulment
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 24 February 15 14:30 GMT (UK) »
Thank you. Agreed, 'annulment' the wrong term. I'm currently researching an apparently bigamous marriage. The first (female)spouse appears to have had a previous admission to the Hoxton Asylum, 1889, and is recorded on the 'lunacy admissions and discharges' leger. She eventually dies in the Roundway Asylum, Wiltshire, in 1914. Whether the reasons for the admissions are dueto  a mental illness or not, I'm unsure as the death certificate indicates 'gangrene of the lung'-so possibly TB, as Roundway was noted for TB cases at this time. Her husband meanwhile, has remarried in 1909, citing his status on the marriage certificate as 'widower'. Currently waiting on the Wiltshire Archives for any information on grounds for her admission!