📣 'Archives to Action' has a programme! If you are a #humanities researcher or #archivist looking to connect your work to #policy. Or if you are in #legal practice or #policy looking for new ways to address old problems, this FREE one-day workshop is for you: www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

A repost for the breakfast crowd ☕🥐 See below for details of a CfP on all aspects of #divorce and #marital breakdown @northumbriauni.bsky.social, Newcastle on 20 April 2026. #PhD #ECR & unfunded bursaries available for speakers. **Abstract deadline 2 Feb 2026** #history #legalhist #law #marriage

📣Today we're launching the #CfP for the 1-day conference 'Broken Bonds: New Perspectives on Marital Breakdown in the English Common Law World 1801-1969' online & in-person 20 April 2026 #history #familylaw #divorce CfP deadline is 2 Feb 2026 See 👇for details. www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Do you work on #domesticabuse #divorce #economicabuse #childcustody in the third sector/policy? Then we have the workshop for you! 'Archives to Action' is a free 1-day workshop exploring the important role archival research can play in policy reform. Details 👇 www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Calling all #lawyers #policymakers #charityworkers #genealogists #familyhistorians #archivists! This FREE workshop on 20 Jan 2026 will showcase #divorce project findings & welcome speakers from policy, practice & the 3rd sector to highlight the power of #archival research. In person/hybrid. Details👇

See below for details of a FREE one-day workshop 'Archives to Action: Historical Evidence for Policy Reform in Marital Breakdown, Domestic Abuse, and Child Welfare' held @northumbriauni.bsky.social on Tuesday 20 January 2026. www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

I won a prize 🥳 Well, Deserted Wives did 😍 📖 Thank you to The Society of Legal Scholars for a lovely evening and wonderful recognition. I am very grateful (as the cheesy grin shows!) Deserted Wives currently has 30% off: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-... #19thC #WomensHistory #sls2025

At the World Economic History Congress in Lund? wehc2025.com #WEHC2025 Dr Jennifer Aston will be giving a paper ‘Marital Status and Credit: navigating the legal constraints of being a married woman in England and Wales 1850–1925’ on 29th July 2025 from 9.30-10.30am in Universitetshuset, Room 125.

📢OUR TRANSCRIBATHON IS TODAY!📢 Online registration has now closed, but if you missed out then DM me and I can provide a workaround ... we wouldn't want anyone to miss the chance to read some lovely wills! #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social

I'm beyond thrilled that 'Deserted Wives & Economic Divorce' has been shortlisted for the The Society of Legal Scholars Margaret Brazier Prize 2025. It is wonderful to see Deserted Wives recognised in this way & to share the shortlist with such brilliant authors 🤩 www.linkedin.com/posts/societ...

Thank you for coming @djrgrey.bsky.social! And thanks also to my amazing fellow panellists @sophiemhistory.bsky.social & @ellasbaraini.bsky.social. My first @socialhistsoc.bsky.social conference has been an amazing experience so far - presenting in a pub was a first! 🍻#SHSConf2025

If you’re at #SHSConf2025 join @drjenniferaston.bsky.social who’s presenting a paper called ‘Navigating Mental Illness in the Pre-1937 Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes’ on Tuesday 7th July 2025 as part of Panel 4 from 2.15-3.45pm in the E & C Lounge. More details here: shorturl.at/ojU0z

Thank you so much to Prof. Sharon Thompson for her amazing review of 'Deserted Wives'. "It is a shining example of the best of legal history." 🤩 Please consider ordering it for your library 📖 www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

Very pleased with the cover design for my new book, The Secret Life of the Hotel! Thanks ‪@bloomsburyhist.bsky.social

The first review of Deserted Wives has been published and it's a lovely one 🥳 The full review is here www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... but I've included a snippet below. Thank you so much @chloechallender.bsky.social 🙏 📖 available here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

The Sex, Gender and the Law session has been an amazing way to start LSA2025 in Chicago. Female business ownership, family law, divorce and legal history - just a few of my favourite things 😍 Also worth noting the top logo-ing from #LSAChicago

The perfect accompaniment to a morning cuppa ☕️ Take 5 mins to read the latest @divorcehistory.bsky.social blog, which explores if second time is the charm...

In case you missed it, here’s out latest blog ‘If at first, you don’t succeed...remarriage and the Divorce Court’ that looks at a couple with links to the #Guinness brewing family who used legislation to reconcile their romantic entanglements #Divorce #LegalHistory #Genealogy #Remarriage (1/16)

Our latest blog ‘If at first, you don’t succeed... #remarriage and the #Divorce Court’ focuses on a couple with links to the #Guinness brewing family and gives a unique glimpse into their attempts to reconcile their romantic entanglements with legislations #legalhistory #genealogy shorturl.at/F6F80

We’re writing with a quick update. NCSA has decided to quit Twitter. Our account is still open for now, but we will permanently close it on 7 July, 2025. You can help us by spreading the word to our C19 colleagues. We’ve already built quite a following over the past year!

For #WomensHistoryMonth #WHM we’re reposting our blog on one of the most radical pieces of legislation in 19thC England that women could use, protection orders. The topic of the book Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce by Dr Jennifer Aston and Professor Olive Anderson. #womenshistory #women (1/11)

#genealogy #familyhistory #history #marriage #divorce #letters On the 16 June 1885, a 23-year-old Miss Charlotte Jane Bell (the daughter of a local gentleman) married Charles Marshall Dix (a 30-year-old widower) at the Parish Church in the small market town of Louth in Lincolnshire. After... (1/9)

As it’s #InternationalWomensDay you can read a free chapter from @drjenniferaston.bsky.social and Professor Olive Anderson’s new book: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th-Century England and Wales: For Wives Alone? tinyurl.com/bdfe8u9d #history #legalhistory #womenshistory #genealogists

In our latest blog we explore restitution of conjugal rights. A type of matrimonial cause available in the #DivorceCourt to deal with #desertion, #childcustody and #maintenance issues that could also be used as evidence of desertion in a #divorce case hosting.northumbria.ac.uk/divorce_hist...

Thanks to those who have followed us this week. Our channel will provide you with updates on the Society's work to support and advocate for history and historians, as well as the activity of other Uk / RoW organisations who do likewise. They include 120+ networks in our Starter Pack bit.ly/4gLVuj7

In January we got to an exciting point in the project, with a visit to our Project Partners #NationalArchivesUK in Kew. We, the Principal Investigator @drjenniferaston.bsky.social and Senior Research Assistant @dianeranyard.bsky.social spent 5 days at the archives. So why were we there? (1/9)

As it’s Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week we’re resharing a blog written in collaboration with our project partner #WelshWomensAid #ITSNOTOK #domesticabuse #LegalHistory tinyurl.com/4y85uy3t

Find out what we've been working on recently in our latest blog 'New Year, New Stage of the Project! Our visit to #TheNationalArchives, Kew' hosting.northumbria.ac.uk/divorce_hist... #archives #divorce #Ancestry #legalhistory #genealogy #familyhistory #history

Thanks to the 1,600 people and organisations who responded to the UK Ministry of Justice’s proposals on the retention of wills. Good news: The UK Government has determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills Read in full here: www.gov.uk/government/c...

As today (the first Monday of the year) is known as #DivorceDay our latest blog looks at a case from the Victorian Divorce Court that began in early January 1898 tinyurl.com/hcvb49n8 #Divorce #Separation #LegalHistory #History #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #TheNationalArchivesUK #Ancestry

In case you missed our latest blog, Finding the Words: Descriptions of Domestic Abuse in the Victorian Divorce Court, is written in collaboration with project partner #WelshWomensAid. You can read the blog on our website here: tinyurl.com/4y85uy3t #Divorce #Christmas #DomesticAbuse #History

Our final blog before Christmas is written in collaboration with project partner #WelshWomensAid. Here we explore how different forms of #domesticabuse were described before the #Divorce Court & consider how survivors articulated their experiences in the 19thC system. #Christmas #LegalHistory (1/10)

In our latest blog, what happened when the literary agent who founded the company that represented #AgathaChristie, was brought before the Divorce Court to answer for his adulterous relationship with a married woman? tinyurl.com/bp56jccx #Adultery #Divorce #LegalHistory #History #Genealogy

#OnThisDay, 15 Dec 1838, Caroline Norton uses a pen name to publish a pamphlet campaigning for the Infant Custody Bill. Until the bill was passed, in 1839, divorced women had no custody rights over their children. #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️ 1/3

On 16 April 1917, a petition for divorce was filed at the Principal Registry in London by Mr. Edward Jan Hoos, a banker who lived in Eaton Place, London. He was alleging that his wife, Gwyneth Alice Hoos had ‘…frequently committed adultery…’, with a named co-respondent... (1/10)

Read the Introduction to Deserted Wives for free here: bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/67000...

Thank you so much to everyone who joined the @ihrwomen.bsky.social seminar in person & online on Friday. Kelly Boyd was an amazing convenor & Verity @hartpublishing.bsky.social did a marvellous job selling copies of the book. Huge thanks also to discussants Jane Humphries & Kate Milliken. 🗃 🌳 💙📚

Listening to an excellent @ihr.bsky.social talk by Jennifer Aston on "Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th-Century England and Wales" and retrospectively getting crosser and crosser with #C19th men.

I was at this too - fascinating research completely rethinking impact of the Divorce & Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 🗃️

Really lovely to be at @ihrwomen.bsky.social’s seminar this evening and to hear @drjenniferaston.bsky.social’s presentation on her new book co-authored with the late Olive Anderson. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...

Very good to attend the launch event yesterday evening for @drjenniferaston.bsky.social's new book, which was among the first recipients of @royalhistsoc.bsky.social's new Funded Book Workshop scheme. Grants support mid-career historians writing a 2nd or 3rd monograph bit.ly/4fYQcRC #Skystorians

Just published: a fascinating piece of work by Jackie Simard — based on some of the doctoral research she did here at UoE Full article: The English Divorce Courts, non-physical ‘cruelty’ and ‘coercive control’ in wives’ petitions, 1857–1914

One last push (I promise!) If anyone is at a loose end in London tonight, or online anywhere then consider coming to hear about the more than 20,000 deserted wives in mid #19thC England & Wales who-for just a few shillings-reclaimed their rights to their children, bodies & property. #history 💙📚 🗃 🌳

Join us at the IHR Women's History Seminar's final event of the term. Register: www.history.ac.uk/events/book-launch-deserted-wives-and-economic-divorce-19th-century-england-and-wales-wives-alone @ihr.bsky.social @lauragowing.bsky.social @carmenmangion.bsky.social @harkaway1.bsky.social

As part of #DisabilityHistoryMonth, we thought we’d revisit our blog called Deafness in the Divorce Court, an example of how #deaf litigants navigated their way through the Victorian Divorce Court. #DeafAwarenes #Legalhistory #genealogy On 25 July 1876, a solicitor by the name of Redgrave... (1/9)

On an unseasonably warm Wednesday in May 1825, Miss Margaret Shands travelled to St Saviour’s Church, Southwark, to marry mariner, Alexander Christie. They set up home together on Watling Street in the City of London and were joined by a daughter, Rebecca in 1827, and a son, William, in 1830. (1/11)

Discover the story behind PI @drjenniferaston.bsky.social's writing partnership with the late Prof. Olive Anderson and their co-authored book, Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce published yesterday @hartpublishing.bsky.social 🗃️ 🌳 🧬 💙📚 #History #19thC #Divorce www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

It's Publication [email protected] & Prof Olive Anderson’s new book Deserted Wives & Economic Divorce is out now @hartpublishing.bsky.social 🥳 Read the Intro for free tinyurl.com/bdfe8u9d & check out our latest blog post tinyurl.com/4tz2wb34 🌳🧬📚🗃️ #19thC #history #legalhistory #divorce

What was the most radical piece of legislation in 19thC England?! @drjenniferaston.bsky.social makes the case for Orders of Protection under Section 21 of the Divorce & Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 in our latest blog post. tinyurl.com/4tz2wb34 @hartpublishing.bsky.social #BookSky #legalhistory 🗃️🧬🌳