Matrimonial and testamentary cause papers

The records in this series consist of exhibits from matrimonial mainly divorce and separation and testamentary causes disputes over wills and administrations heard in the Consistory Court of London. 'Exhibit' had two senses : it was used to describe an item produced as evidence and also a document produced in court to show that an administrative procedure had been completed for example a proxy, an inventory or a citation. Many of the documents in this series are exhibits in the second sense, but a reasonable number of evidence exhibits survive.

Although the intention at some point seems to have been to separate divorce exhibita from other classes, there remains a large proportion relating to testamentary matters in this series. Documents found include statements of expenses, marriage certificates, depositions signed by opposing parties and their witnesses, original letters of proxy, household inventories and much miscellanea.

A great deal of general information may be obtained from these records. Inventories are a well-known source for social history, and depositions or examinations or affidavits which can be very similar reveal much about household relationships and patterns of behaviour. Letters give information about the education of the author as well as social behaviour. The propensity of people to move about the globe in the 18th and 19th centuries is revealed, as are the numbers of people travelling within Britain. Many cases result from the long periods of separation which this caused. The records provide a unique opportunity to study the relationship between men and women throughout the period, as well as the relations between different elements of society. While it seems clear that it was only those with some money who were able to pursue a cause through the court, the records do not simply reflect the wealthy classes.

There were two major matrimonial causes, namely divorces after which re-marriage was not possible and nullities. In addition the lesser causes of iactitation, restitution and breach of faith were also heard. In this series the grounds on which divorce was sought were adultery on the one hand, and cruelty or cruelty and adultery on the other. Nullity could be sought on a larger number of grounds, for example, previous marriage bigamy, impotence or frigidity, the unacknowledged or concealed minority of a party, the absence of banns or another irregularity in procedure, insanity of one party at the time of the marriage, a marriage within the tables of affinity. Iactitation was to boast of a marriage which had not taken place. Either party could come to court to secure the restitution of conjugal rights and both could also complain of a breach of promise or contract.

Brief analysis of the records suggest a number of points. In matrimonial causes both men and women from an early date sought divorce on the grounds of adultery but only women with few exceptions sought divorce on the grounds of cruelty or cruelty and adultery. Both men and women sought nullity and restitution of conjugal rights on all grounds. More women than men prosecuted another for iactitation of marriage. If a copy judgement in Kings Bench is noted without other comment, then the husband usually will be seeking divorce for his wife's adultery, as he will previously have sought damages from the adulterer in the civil court. Only a woman could be 'falsely called.'

The arrangement is generally alpha-chronological within the year, regardless of cause. There are, however, a few exceptions. An initial letter may have been misread, a document may have been withdrawn and incorrectly replaced, and there are a few cases of a document being put in the correct place in the wrong year. During the 1740s and 1750s matrimonial and testamentary causes were filed in separate chronological series.

Annotations on documents in this series suggest that at least by 1863 records were being put into order or re-ordered, some of them to be greatly disordered at a later date. Details of the original arrangements are as follows:

DL/C/550 : this box contains two series, one of which contains papers relating only to matrimonial and disputed testamentary causes, the other containing papers relating only to testamentary causes, not all of which are disputed.

DL/C/551 : this box contains two series of papers, one relating to matrimonial causes, to the appointment of guardians and to a few disputed testamentary causes, the other only to testamentary causes both disputed and not.

DL/C/552 : this box contains five bundles, three of which relate only to matrimonial causes and appointments of guardians and the other two of which relate only to testamentary causes.

DL/C/568 : papers in this box bear 'original' numbers '1/1809'-'97/1809'.

DL/C/570 : papers in this box dated 1811 are all numbered '1811' plus a running number from 47A to 91.

DL/C/572-574 : papers in these boxes dated 1813 bear 'original' numbers '1/1813' to '223/1813'; those dated 1814 bear 'original' numbers '1a/1814'-'160/1814'.

DL/C/575 : papers in this box bear 'original' numbers '1/1815' to '153/1815'.

DL/C/576 : papers in this box bear 'original' numbers '1/1816' to '134/1816'.

DL/C/577 : papers in this box bear 'original' numbers '1/1817' to '116/1817'.

<span class="wrapper"><p>The relationship between the large number of series which make up the records of the Consistory Court is complex. A very small sample of papers in this series was checked against the parallel series of act books, deposition books, personal answers, assignations, allegations, libels and sentences. Some of the causes appeared only in this series of exhibits, while a number of causes appear in one or more other series but not in the exhibits. A larger number of causes, however, appear in some other series as well as in this series of exhibits.</p> <p>Enquirers who believe they know a cause was heard in this court and do not find reference to it here should always look in the related series. Likewise if a cause is found, then further information might be located in other series. The papers in this series will form only part of those created during the hearing of a cause. For example exhibits evidence were commonly attached to the libel, the proponent's statement of his case, and so may also be found in the series of volumes of libels, allegations and sentences DL/C/142-191. Likewise classes of documents often found in this series of exhibita, such as libels, allegations, depositions or affidavits, personal answers and sentences, often all have their own separate series of bound volumes.</p> <p>Searching for all the cause papers for a case can consequently be time consuming. The confusion enquirers may experience in looking for papers in a cause is not due only to changes in record-keeping over a considerable period of time or indeed to imperfect record-keeping, but also to the relationship of the Consistory Court to other ecclesiastical and civil courts and to the later history of the records. By means of letters of request, other ecclesiastical courts in England, Wales and Ireland, and civil courts in Scotland, might be asked to examine witnesses, secure personal answers, take oaths and bonds, or carry out other court procedures and return them to London. Such courts might ask London to undertake similar procedures for them. The responses to such requests from and to the Consistory Court are often found as exhibits. The Court of Arches, the appeal court of the archdiocese of Canterbury, could inhibit halt the proceedings of this court and require the records of the proceedings in a cause to be sent to it. If the appeal failed the records would usually be sent back to London for the cause to continue in that court. Divorce proceedings could also be heard in the House of Lords and records of proceedings in a divorce cause in an ecclesiastical court might be sent there.</p> <p>In addition, for a cause to be heard, or partly heard, by the Consistory Court of London, it seems to have been necessary only for one of the parties at the time of the cause to be living within the diocese or, in testamentary causes, for the deceased to have lived within the diocese or have been subject to the court's probate jurisdiction. This would explain the large number of matrimonial causes where the marriage or alleged marriage took place far from the diocese.</p></span>

By the Court of Probate Act and the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, both of 1857, civil courts were set up and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions in these matters in England, Wales and Ireland transferred to them. In 1875 both courts were incorporated into the Admiralty, Probate and Divorce Division of the High Court. The location of the Consistory Court records in Doctors' Commons and their move to Somerset House in 1875 may have been less troublesome than other transfers but disruption must have occurred. LMA still receives small numbers of Consistory Court records from other record offices to which they have in error made their way.