Despite the rigid once-you’re-married-it’s-for-life nature of medieval Catholic marriage, in practice people practised some DIY when it came to marriage dissolution. The case had two alleged self-divorces. It is a bit complicated, but here’s a guess at the back-story. Around 1469 or 1470, John Hill of Hadley, Middlesex, married a woman named Elizabeth Leg. TheyContinue reading “John Hill and Emma Wright c. Elizabeth Leg alias Hill “
Tag Archives: Divorce (annullment)
Alice Barbour c. William Barbour
A mind-boggling aspect of late medieval church courts was the employment of “juries of matrons” in suits for divorce by reason of impotence: the court could order a group of women to investigate on its behalf whether a man was capable of “having carnal knowledge” of a woman. In other words, they performed a court-orderedContinue reading “Alice Barbour c. William Barbour”
Thomas Walker c. Katherine Williamson alias Walker
According to the witnesses in this case, Katherine Williamson married two men in quick succession in 1482 and early 1483. This case is likely a suit to annul the second marriage rather than to enforce it: the headings indicate that Thomas Walker was the plaintiff, but the first three witnesses, apparently called on his behalf,Continue reading “Thomas Walker c. Katherine Williamson alias Walker“
Emma Rose c. Thomas Dicons and Margery Dicons
This case has a somewhat unusual form: a woman named Emma Rose sued a couple, Thomas and Margery Dicons, in order to have her own marriage to Thomas Dicons annulled. As all the witnesses including Thomas himself agreed, his marriage to Emma Rose had occurred after he was already married to Margery, making the secondContinue reading “Emma Rose c. Thomas Dicons and Margery Dicons”
Elizabeth Kirkhouse c. Richard Haymond and Emma Cowper
In this lawsuit, the deponents, including defendant Richard Haymond himself, all tell different parts of the same story, that Richard was already married to Elizabeth Kirkhouse when a year later he bigamously married Emma Cowper. The point of the lawsuit was clearly to annul Haymond’s marriage to Cowper so that he could resume his spousalContinue reading “Elizabeth Kirkhouse c. Richard Haymond and Emma Cowper”
Christopher Bradley c Margaret Bradley
In May 2024, I found in the London Consistory records this highly unusual case of an apparent intersex person. She[1] was Margaret Bradley of Edmonton and Hackney, Middlesex, whose husband Christopher sued her in 1522 to annul their marriage. Six women, three midwives and three apparent neighbours of Christopher in Hackney, testified in significant anatomicalContinue reading “Christopher Bradley c Margaret Bradley”
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