Divorce in the 1860s

[Retriever]

On a marriage certificate of 1869 it states that the groom was divorced from his former wife.

That marriage was registered in 1861, and they had a son.

I am surprised that a divorced person could be re-married in an Anglican church at that time or even that divorce was an option then.

Has anybody else come across divorce and re-marriage in church this early?

[Milliepede]

I looked it up and there was an Act in 1857 allowing husbands to divorce their wives for adultery but not the other way around.

Other reasons for divorce didn't come in until much later. 

[Retriever]

Thanks for that Milliepede.

That could be the reason for the divorce as the son was rebaptised, the record showing him as the son of the father and second wife.

I am still surprised a divorcee was allowed a marriage in church in the 1860s.

[BumbleB]

I have a lady who married in 1850, then obtained a divorce from the husband, and re-married in 1873 under her maiden-name as a "Divorced woman".

[emeltom]

Perhaps it was down to the discretion of the Vicar.

Emeltom

[ShaunJ]

Divorce papers from that period are viewable on Ancestry https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/divorcerecords/

[BumbleB]

Yes, I've got a copy of the divorce papers.  He was the adulterer.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I must admit I'm a bit surprised that at that time the "guilty party" of a divorce could re-marry in a church. I'd a feeling that the "innocent" one might have been able to, but not the other.....

[BumbleB]

I haven't checked it out, but a "gentleman" of the same name married, also in 1873, in the area he moved to.  He said that he was a widower.