Alienated affections : the Scottish experience of divorce and separation, 1684-1830 / Leah Leneman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leneman, Leah, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Divorce.

Divorce--Scotland.

Separation (Law)--Scotland.

Separation (Law).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 354 pages)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Personal accounts of adultery, cruelty, desertion and nullity fill this exposition of divorce and separation in Scotland in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Leah Leneman brings vividly to life the marriages and affairs, loves and hates, tenderness and harshness experienced by men and women whose marriages broke down in this period. Their stories, told in their own words, come from the entire spectrum of Scottish society, from the aristocracy to the 'common' people. Contrary to popular belief, divorce and legal separation were available on equal terms to men and women in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Scotland. Alienated Affections offers an overall picture of this phenomenon, richly illustrated by the experiences of individuals.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Figure and Tables

Author's Note

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The Overall Picture

2 Proving Adultery - Witnesses

3 Proving Adultery - Other Types of Evidence

4 Contested Cases

5 Unsuccessful Cases

6 Aristocratic Divorces

7 Gentry Divorces

8 Adultery with a Social Inferior

9 ‘Common’ Divorces - Part 1

10 ‘Common’ Divorces - Part 2

11 English Marriage and Scottish Divorce

12 Desertion and Adherence

13 Nullity

14 Separation - Part 1: Patterns of Abuse

15 Separation - Part 2: Surviving Violence

16 Separation - Part 3: Defence and Denial

17 The Overall Picture Assessed

Bibliography

Subject Index

Name Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [332]-334) and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4744-7020-3