New Haven County Court Records

Divorce in Nineteenth-Century Connecticut

This month, we are pleased to present a guest post from an Uncovering New Haven project student volunteer, Abby Davidson. She will discuss her findings in the New Haven County Superior Court divorce cases from the 1800s.

Advertisement for Tenexine, circa 1900. Public domain image courtesy of Miami University Libraries—Digital Collections, via Wikimedia Commons.

Overview

As discussed in previous blog posts, Divorce in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut and Women in Colonial Connecticut, divorce was a part of life in colonial Connecticut. It was a relatively uncommon occurrence and was taken very seriously by the courts. Without the option of no-fault divorces, each petitioner had to gather evidence to support their claim. Nearly every petition filed in New Haven County between 1800 and 1859 was granted, with a few being inconclusive or pushed to a later date, and only five out of 777 were negatived (the term used for denied).

There are notable differences in the divorce petitions from the earlier decades and the later decades of the nineteenth century. Petitions from the 1810s, 1820s, and 1830s were usually fully handwritten. While the court did have a printed form, it wasn’t commonly used and was almost always accompanied by handwritten statements. This is likely because the form was rather sparse, and typically not big enough to hold all the information needed. At the time, no-fault divorces weren’t an option and people seeking divorce had to have a reason (or in many cases, multiple reasons) to petition for it.

Divorce petition from the early nineteenth century: Thomas Alling vs. Lydia Alling, 1837. Note that the printed text is minimal, and a large blank space is left on the form to fill out reasons for the petition.

The reasons for divorces also differed between decades. Earlier petitions typically listed one or more of these reasons: desertion, adultery, fraud, or abuse. If the petitioner desired a name change, alimony, and/or custody of children born during the marriage, they had to make that request in their own writing (not on the form).

Divorce petitions in the 1840s and 1850s looked somewhat different than their predecessors. The petition form now included five listed reasons for divorce:

• Desertion: absence from the life and home of the petitioner for a period of three or more years
• Adultery: physical and/or emotional infidelity, considered a crime
• Intemperance: habitual drunkenness (possibly influenced by the Temperance Movement)
• Intolerable cruelty: a somewhat general term used for mistreatment and abuse
• Destruction of happiness: a general term used as more of a catch all

Rather than having to write any of these reasons out, the form listed all of them and had blank spaces that could be filled in. Similarly, the forms had options for requesting a name change, alimony, or custody. Some of the petitions still included handwritten portions to elaborate on certain claims, and most of them used the premade form. Divorces (and requests for them) became more common in these decades as well. While it’s hard to say exactly why, it’s likely that they were becoming more socially accepted. The image at the start of this article is from the early twentieth century, but it shows how the topic of divorce became common enough to poke fun at.

Example of divorce petition from the mid-nineteenth century: Fanny E. Granger (née Allis) vs. David H. Granger, 1851. Note that the different options are fully printed, with small spaces left to fill in specific details.

Truths and Misconceptions

There are misconceptions about historical divorces, and some of them are wholly untrue. Two of the biggest are that only men or only women initiated divorce, and that divorces simply didn’t happen until the most recent century or so. While women in colonial New Haven filed for divorce at a higher rate than men, both parties sought divorces. And while divorce occurred in relatively small numbers, it did happen.

Although a lack of no-fault divorces necessitated bringing forth grievances, it also highlighted the issues faced by married people in this time period. Adultery was considered a crime as well as grounds for divorce. While desertion required the spouse in question to have been absent for at least three years without word and to have proof, it was the other main reason for divorce in the early nineteenth century. The inclusion of intemperance, cruelty, and destruction of happiness spoke to the growing recognition of how poorly married couples could treat each other.

Interesting Cases

Within the span of divorce cases of New Haven County from 1800 to 1859, there are some that stand out or show interesting patterns in the data. One such case involves a married couple who lived in Great Britain. The husband wanted to move to America, while the wife wanted to stay. According to statements, some of their friends tried to convince her to go, and the husband even threatened to leave and divorce her once he got there. She replied that they had lived together a long time, but no longer had a relationship, and that she didn’t want to leave behind her entire life. He went through with his relocation and secured a divorce after coming to New Haven, claiming desertion.

James Croft vs. Mary Croft (née Turner), 1827

One of the patterns that emerged within the cases was infidelity among spouses who traveled, usually for business. Since sea travel was time consuming and dangerous, and communication was quite difficult, it was easy for the loved ones of travelers to go a long time without hearing anything from them. This could have led to the belief that their spouse had been lost to sea, or to a feeling of loneliness.

Certain cases illustrate how muddled information could get when it needed to cross state lines, and how different laws and regulations could lead to confusion. Multiple cases of desertion included details of the missing spouse fleeing to another state with their lover. One man filed for divorce in Connecticut in response to his wife getting a divorce from him in Rhode Island.

Weston Ferris vs. Anna C. Ferris (née Houghton), 1857

Another case saw a woman who moved from Vermont to Connecticut, claiming that she was a widow. Since communication over large distances was much more difficult than it is today, no one had any reason to doubt her. She met a man in Connecticut and the two got married. However, soon enough another man from Vermont arrived, claiming that the woman was his wife and they were still married. Since bigamy was illegal and the Connecticut man could claim she married him under fraudulent circumstances, he was granted a divorce from her.

Augustus Hall vs Betsy Hall (née Bigelow), 1815

Another seemed like a standard case of adultery and desertion at first, with a man leaving his wife to live with his mistress, but the petitioner also revealed that a woman from North Carolina had showed up in Connecticut also claiming to be the wife of the defendant.

Certain legal circumstances could also allow for a divorce. Several women filed for divorce for the reason that their husbands were in jail after being accused of or found guilty of a crime. One woman filed a petition because her husband had contracted a venereal disease and she was concerned for her health, while another sought a divorce because her husband had a venereal disease and concealed it from her.

There were at least two cases of women under the age of 21—during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the age of majority for men was 21 while it was only 18 for women (Nicholas L. Syrett, Chapter 5: Statutory Marriage Ages and the Gendered Construction of Adulthood in the Nineteenth Century, Age in America: The Colonial Era to the Present, pp. 103-123). The ages of the involved parties are not typically listed in the documents, but their inclusion in these cases could suggest that a woman marrying below the age of 21 may have been unusual in colonial New Haven.

Eliza Cramer vs Everton R. Cramer, 1850

Conclusion

It’s easy to assume that people in the past led very different lives when compared to modern ones, but looking at history shows this isn’t true. Divorce has existed and been an option for married people since the Puritans settled New England. The legal system regarding divorce has grown and evolved over time: recognizing more causes for seeking a divorce, providing more support and protections for divorced individuals, becoming more normalized in society and (eventually) granting the option of no-fault divorce. These petitions show that in every era, human relationships have been complicated.

As noted in a previous post, the records for these cases, as well as several of the cases previously profiled in this blog, are currently in the process of being digitized. They will eventually be available for public viewing at the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA).

This project is made possible through funding from the Historic Documents Preservation fund of the Office of the Public Records Administrator. We also recognize the past support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).