Thread: Divorce, adultry & bigamy in 1870s

Firstly hello, this is my first post. I am quite new to researching my family tree, as I started around 6 months ago.



I was having some problems with a John & Mary Hamer in my family tree, as shortly after being married and having a child she was back living with her parents (on the 1871 cencus).



After several months of digging, I decided to see if I could find any records of a divorce. Imagine my joy when I found a John & Mary Hamer, petition for divorce at the nationa archives. I decided to take a chance that it was the right couple, and low and behold a 10 page document came back detailing the details of the divorce petition. It was obviously the right couple, as it detailed matching addresses and their child's name.

It turned out to be a bit of a bargain too at £8.50, as it included 2 marriage certificates which alone would have cost me £7.50 at a registry office.



Anyway....it turns out he filed for divorce on ground of adultry, AND bigamy. She had actually married a second time whilst they will still married.



To cut a long story short, the divorce was granted in 1880.



Interestingly on the 1881 census, the child is living (and I know) was brought up by his grandparents. So..... my guess is that she would have been put in jail for bigamy.



So...my question....how could I find out which jail she would have been sent to, if indeed she did go to jail. From the late 1700's photos were taken of prisoners, so my hope is that I might be able to track on down if I can find the prison records. I think jail's may be on the cenus, but I cant find her when searching the census with ancestry.co.uk If I knew how to manully go through the prisons I would do so, in case there was a spelling mistake etc.



One final point.... many people on this forum say that divorce isnt really worth researching prior to the early 1900s. Obviously the situation above is from the 1870s, and neither of the couple had any money, they both worked in the mills, and lived in poor housing. So if you think someone in your family might have been divorced.... my advice is search the national archives website online, and if you think you have a match take a gamble and purchase it.... the wealth of information in a diorce is way beyond what you could ever hope to find via certificates and headstones.

what an interesting find!



If she was imprisoned, she should still appear on the census. I think maybe you would need to look at the local newspaper reports of the time.



She might also be in the criminal registers on Ancestry.

I will certainly try and find the criminal register on Ancestry, thank you.



With regards the newspapers, I did consider that option.... but the divorce process seems to have been drawn out over a period of more than 12 months. Any suggestions about which point in the divorce I should be aiming for?



I have searched the census but cannot find her at all in 1881, either prison or elsewhere. If I could find a list of links to the prison census from the year I would go through them all manually looking for all the Mary's. The problem is that I dont know how to find census for prisons. Any ideas anyone?