Genealogy Chat

I have found references to the fact that where a spouse disappeared, it was accepted that after 7 years the abandoned partner could marry again. I was already aware of the possibility of having someone declared dead after 7 years, but the inference seems to be that a formal declaration of death was not needed to allow another marriage. I haven't been able to confirm is whether this would have been the case in the 1890's. I have an ancestor whose husband went to the US leaving his wife behind. He married someone else in the US, and in 1898 his abandoned wife married again, this was more than 7 years after first husband left England. So was her marriage bigamous or legal?

I would think that if there was no divorce or legal action to have the husband declared dead, then the marriage would be bigamous. That's just my opinion though. Perhaps divorce was easier to obtain in the USA at that time and her husband obtained a divorce there leaving her free to marry again.

When she remarried, how did she describe her status? Widowed, divorced or single?

I can't give you a yes or no answer, Julie. I would guess strictly speaking it was bigamous - but wasn't uncommon. Divorce was expensive, and declaring someone dead would have cost money too.

But we don't know if the wife had him declared dead or not, so it's a bit of a hypothetical question.


Someone on another thread thinks this, in reply to a similar question - though I can't say if it's correct or not:

"Re: Divorce in 1890s
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 17 April 08 18:03 BST (UK) »
Ah, if she was listed as a widow but was not a widow, then there probably wasn't a divorce. (If legally divorced, it should have been listed on the marriage certificate). Do you know what happened to the first husband? Were there children born between 1892 and 1898?

No proof was required at marriage - people got away with lying all the time, changing ages, father's names and occupations, marital status, etc. Especially if he'd left her and she said he'd died aboard a ship to Australia or something - difficult to prove he didn't!

At some point (not sure of if this was still in effect around this time), if the husband had been absent seven years, with no contact, it was legally permissible for her to consider him deceased and remarry. A bit too short a time scale in this case but something to remember. "
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=299176.0


In your ancestor's case, as he'd gone to the US, nobody on either side of the Atlantic would bother to check if either party said their spouse had died in the other country.

I belive in such cases,a sworn affidavit applied where all contact had been lost and no contact had been made during the past????? years of the deserted spouse plus there was no knowledge of whereabouts dead or alive...…if proven the person would then be given a grant to re-marry.

I'm not sure if a formal notice of intent had to be published for public interest.but a high cost would be involved for legal persuits.

If it was found that it was all frabricated then they were liable to a prison term.

Don't know if this still applied in the 1890's -

" If one party to a marriage disappeared for seven years it was, by the eighteenth century, generally assumed that the deserted one could marry again, though if the errant one returned, the first marriage took priority. . . . . Desertion and bigamy were not infrequent, but prosecutions were rare. "

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Divorce_in_England_and_Wales

(Perhaps that's what you said you'd found, on your other thread about the couple concerned? )

"The offence of bigamy has a statutory exception which applies where the spouse has been absent 7 years and they are not known to have been alive in that time:

See section 57 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861:

Whosoever, being married, shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second marriage shall have taken place in England or Ireland or elsewhere, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years ... : Provided, that nothing in this section contained shall extend to any second marriage contracted elsewhere than in England and Ireland by any other than a subject of Her Majesty, or to any person marrying a second time whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time, or shall extend to any person who, at the time of such second marriage, shall have been divorced from the bond of the first marriage, or to any person whose former marriage shall have been declared void by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction. "

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=400889.0

Many thanks for tracking this down ArgyllGran, I think answers my question as far as it's possible to do so. I wouldn't have ever thought of looking at the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 to find it. Thankfully someone else did. Of course we will never know whether the abandoned spouse in this case had any contact with the errant first husband after he went to the US.

Hi Julie -

in Australia - in much earlier days - one could remarry after 7 years 'desertion'.
I would think the same applied to other new colonies.
Valerie
WAus