Marital Litigation in the Court of Requests 1542–1642: Volume 32 (Camden Fifth Series, Series Number 32)

Cambridge University Press, 11/20/2008
EAN 9780521800013, ISBN10: 0521800013

Hardcover, 288 pages, 21.6 x 14.2 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Common law rules made litigation between husband and wife impossible in the 16/17th century, except in ecclesiastical courts. In practice, however, a few wives and husbands sued their spouses in courts of equity. This volume reproduces twenty such suits from the Court of Requests – 'the poor man's Chancery' – during the final century of its operation. These extraordinary cases involving separated couples provide a fascinating and often surprising view of the limits of married people's rights and options at a time when divorce in the modern sense was unavailable. The court's decrees and orders show how Masters, or judges, of Requests dealt with the question of married women's legal status and with claims for alimony (by men as well as women). Historians and literary scholars will appreciate the richness of detail of the written pleadings and depositions that document the variety of human failings that parties alleged had devastated their marriages.

Cases and documents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Parnell Bowdo v. Peter Bowdo
2. Margery Alcock v. Nicholas Alcocke
3. Dame Margery Acton v. Sir Robert Acton
4. Isabell Osmoderley v. William Osmoderley
5. Dame Elizabeth Stafford v. Sir Humphrey Stafford
6. Mary Puttenham v. Richard Puttenham
7. Gawine Smith v. Elizabeth Smith et al.
8. Griffin Jones v. Marion Jones
9. Jane Read alias Lambert v. Thomas Read & John Jefferies
10. Thomas Read v. Jane Lambert
11. Joan Spragin v. Martyn Spragin & Richard Levens
12. Anne Lloyd v. Humphrey Lloyd & John Bradshaw
13. Cicelie Jackman, Thomas Burnett et al. v. John Jackman
14. Robert Garth v. Sir Benjamin Tichborne & Elizabeth Garth
15. Mary Whetenhall v. Thomas Whetenhall
16. Elizabeth Eggington v. Frauncis Eggington & John Eggington
17. Margery Gardiner v. John Gardiner
18. Anne Perrye v. John Garbett & John Perrye
19. Thomas Bireley v. Isabell Birely & Henry Cornoe
20. William Dunford v. Elianor Dunford & Richard Hall
Appendix
Masters of Requests c.1542–1642.