1. Why use this guide?
In this guide to divorce records, you will find:
- advice on tracing divorce records and searching case files
- information on the history of divorce in England and Wales
You may wish to start your research by consulting our research signpost on divorce.
2. Essential information
The divorce law changed on 11 January 1858, from which date the new secular Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes heard all divorce and matrimonial cases. In 1873 it became part of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the Supreme Court of Judicature. Divorce remained out of reach financially for the vast majority of the population until well into the 20th century. See section 4 below for more information.
3. Divorce records after 1858
3.1 Certified copies of decrees nisi and absolute
For legal proof of a divorce in any court in England and Wales from 1858 to the present day, you will need to request a search of the Central Index of Decrees Absolute. To do so, download Form D440 from Her Majesty's Courts Service website and post it to the Principal Registry of the Family Division.
3.2 Case files
Each divorce suit, successful or not, created a 'case file', containing the original petition and response, relevant marriage and birth certificates, court process, copies of decrees (from about 1870 onwards) and, infrequently, evidence. Most files were stripped of the less formal papers many years ago, but some full files were kept as examples of how the court operated. These are all described as 'full files' in the catalogue. Very few case files survive after 1937. No case files survive from the district registries set up in 1927.
Case files are now destroyed 20 years after the divorce. Within this 20 year period, you can apply to the relevant court for permission to see the file. Surviving case files from 1858 onwards are in J 77. Our research signpost on divorce contains a search box that allows you to do an online name search in J 77.
There are abbreviations in the Catalogue entries for J 77 to make it easier for researchers to search by type of petition. H refers to a husband's petition and W to a wife's petition. Further abbreviations refer to the type of petition, as given in the original index in J 78:
- D - divorce
- JS - judicial separation
- N - nullity
- RCR - restitution of conjugal rights
You may also find:
- Legit - petition for declaration of legitimacy
- Prot - application for order for protection of wife's earnings and property
- Div Ct - appeal to divisional court from magistrates court
We have also created WX and HX for some early case files in J 78. W relates to a wife's petition and H to a husband's - X means that the type of petition is not given in J 78.
3.3. Investigations into collusive divorces
In cases of suspected collusion or deceit, investigations were made and decrees could be overturned. Registers of divorce cases investigated by the King's or Queen's Proctor, from 1875, are in TS 29. They are closed for up to 75 years.
4. Background information
4.1 Changes in divorce law
Following the change in the divorce law in 1858 (see section 2), although divorce was no longer the exclusive province of the very wealthy, it still involved considerable expense, so the poor were effectively excluded. The very poor could sue without payment of fees 'in forma pauperis' if they could prove their lack of means. The real opening of divorce to all classes did not take place until the 1920s, with the extension of legal aid, and the provision of some local facilities.
In 1922, ten assize towns were named as suitable for the hearing of certain kinds of uncontested divorce. From 1927, petitions could also be filed in 23 district registries instead of solely at the Principal Registry in London, while cases could be heard in 18 assize towns as well as in London. This option proved increasingly popular: within 10 years nearly a quarter of all suits were started at district registries of the Supreme Court. The county courts were finally able to hear divorce suits in the late 1960s. Most divorces now take place at county courts.
A divorce normally took about 18 months to complete, from the initial filing of a petition to the granting of a decree absolute. A decree nisi was granted when the court was satisfied that the grounds for the divorce had been proved. This was conditional: the parties were not free to re-marry until the decree absolute was granted, usually six months after the decree nisi.
4.2 Grounds for divorce
Until 1971 divorces were granted on the basis of the bad behaviour of one or other party. Divorce by mutual consent was not allowed, and if the parties colluded to obtain a divorce, the court would refuse to grant it. A man could divorce his wife for adultery, and she would not be entitled to any maintenance, as a consequence of her bad behaviour. The husband might even sue the other man for damages, and for the costs of the suit.
Until 1923 a wife had to prove her husband's adultery, along with some other offence, to gain a divorce. This could be cruelty, or desertion for two years or more. She could also divorce him on the grounds of incestuous adultery if he committed adultery with a woman that he could not legally have married if his wife were dead. This would include his wife's sister, or half-sister.
4.3 Annulments
Petitions for nullity or annulment of marriage were relatively rare. If a decree of nullity was granted, it was as though the marriage had never taken place. A decree of nullity could be granted on four grounds:
- impotence, provided the condition existed before the marriage and was permanent
- absence of consent, where consent had been obtained through fraud or coercion, or insanity of one of the parties at the time of the marriage
- breach of statute, where the parties were within the prohibited degrees of relationship, or where one or both had not been free to marry at the time of the marriage. This would include cases where a divorced person re-married before they had obtained their decree absolute
- bigamy, in which case the injured party had to prove that the first marriage was valid
4.4 Judicial separation
Some petitions were for judicial separation rather than divorce, on the grounds of adultery, cruelty or desertion. In such cases the parties were not free to re-marry, but gained some legal protection; the wife's property and earnings from the time of the separation were protected, and she could be awarded alimony; and the husband would no longer be liable for any debts incurred by his wife.
A wife might gain a separation on the grounds of desertion if she had been obliged to leave the home because of her husband's misconduct, for example if he were an habitual drunkard. It did not, however, constitute desertion if a husband's occupation required him to be absent from home for long periods, for example if he was a soldier or sailor.
From 1878 local magistrates could grant separation and maintenance orders to the wives of violent husbands, and from 1886 a husband who deserted his wife and children, or refused to maintain them, could be ordered by the magistrates to pay up to £2 per week. Some Poor Law authorities required deserted or abused wives to obtain such orders before granting them relief. If they survive, local magistrates' records are available from local archives.
A separation might be obtained where there were insufficient grounds for divorce, or the petitioner had religious or moral objections to a full divorce.
4.5 Restitution of conjugal rights
A petition might be made for restitution of conjugal rights, where one party had withdrawn from cohabitation without good cause. The absent party could be served with an order to return, and if they refused, this was deemed to be desertion and contempt of court, and the injured party could then petition for an accelerated divorce.
5. Further reading
The following publications are available in The National Archives' library. Those with a link can be purchased from The National Archives' online bookshop:
Bevan, Amanda, Tracing your ancestors in The National Archives (7th edn, Kew, 2006)
Philips, Roderick, 'Divorced, beheaded, died…', History Today XLIII (1993), 9-12
Rowntree, Griselda and Carrier, Norman H, 'The resort to divorce in England and Wales, 1858-1957', Population Studies XI (3) (1958), 188-233
Stone, Lawrence, Road to divorce: England 1530-1987 (Oxford, 1990), 383-416
