On 23 June 1801, a woman called Jane Campbell divorced her husband Edward Addison by Act of Parliament, and became the first woman to obtain a Parliamentary divorce. Dr Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist at the Parliamentary Archives and joint Project Manager for Vote 100, discusses how this came about, the significance of the case, and investigates who Jane Campbell was.
In 1801 Jane Campbell won the first Parliamentary divorce by a woman, one of only four in history. She obtained her divorce on grounds of ‘incestuous adultery’ committed by her husband Edward Addison with her sister Jessy, and also won custody of her children. Meanwhile Jessy’s husband also divorced her by Act of Parliament, and she was forbidden from ever marrying Edward Addison. This fascinating case involved a tangle of family relationships which were sensationally described in evidence to the House of Lords by servants.
How unusual…
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