Okla-homey
1/5/2007, 07:22 AM
Jan 5, 1643 : First divorce in the colonies
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/10236/2002115264247587450_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002115264247587450)
364 years ago today, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/8361/2001300414099486157_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001300414099486157)
Hon. John Winthrop, Jr.
In a affidavit presented to John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder, Denis Clarke admitted to abandoning his wife, with whom he had two children, for another woman, with whom he had another two children. Mr. Clarke also stated his refusal to return to his original wife, thus giving the Puritan court no option but to punish Clarke and grant a divorce to his wife, Anne.
The Quarter Court's final decision read:
"Anne Clarke, beeing deserted by Denis Clarke hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, she is graunted to bee divorced."
As an aside, this is not to say no divorces occurred in North America before the Clarke's. In most Eastern Woodland Indian tribes, we know that an Indian wife could obtain a divorce by putting her spouse's stuff outside their home and that was his message he was no longer married. The man usually went back home to his mother, and they both became eligible to remarry. She usually ended up with the kids but there was no alimony or child support.
As you can see, the divorce was only possible because one party to the marriage was "at fault" and deemed guilty of committing a wrong against the other party to the marriage. That's pretty much the way it remained for the next 300 years in this country.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/7698/2002119631230656968_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002119631230656968)
In 1969, Miami lawyer Stanley Rosenblatt's The Divorce Racket called for a "revolution" that would eliminate fault grounds of divorce and give everyone a right to unilateral divorce after a cooling-off period of 60 days or so.
Rosenblatt cited several statistics that are useful in today's no-fault debate, in which we are arguing about the effects of restricting no-fault divorce without really having any comparable real-world examples of the more restrictive systems that are being proposed.
Some of Rosenblatt's statistics about a time just before "no-fault" was introduced:
One-fourth of marriages ended in divorce (p. 9).
Of these divorces, 85% to 90% were not contested! (p. 11).
"Extremely few lawyers" specialized in divorce. (p. 128)
The average man [spent] more time deciding upon a car purchase than in choosing a lifelong spouse, and the average woman often [knew] more about her hairdresser than about her intended." (p. 151).
Most common grounds of divorce in the period before "no-fault" (pp. 8-9):
1. Cruelty 40%
2. Desertion 33%
3. Adultery
4. Alcoholism
5. Felony conviction
6. Nonsupport
7. Impotence
Rosenblatt thought his reforms would greatly reduce the role of lawyers and judges* and drastically reduce employment opportunities for them, because the only issues left would be custody, property and support, "simple" issues which lawyers and judges had no particular expertise in.
* Boy was he wrong!
Today, The last-reported U.S. divorce rate for a calendar year, available as of May, 2005, is 38% divorces per capita per year, the provisional estimate for the year 2005 from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The absolute latest annual divorce rate is 37 % for the "year" ending Nov. 30, 2004.
Notes on understanding this per capita rate:
This rate is only for the states that keep track of the number of divorces. California, Colorado, Indiana and Louisiana do not.
Since every divorce involves two people, the percentage becomes somewhat more meaningful if you double it. E.g., 74% of the entire population gets divorced every year.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/7997/2002169428358285995_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002169428358285995)
Some people keep a sense of humor about it. SF.com poster Olevet threw a bash after one of his divorces.
Also worth noting,
- 43% of first marriages end within 15 years.
- Red states have a divorce rate 27% higher than blue states.
- 75% of all divorced people re-marry, half of them within three years
- Roughly 1 in 5 adults has ever divorced
- First marriages that end in divorce last about 8 years, on
average.
- Marriages are most susceptible to divorce in the early years of marriage.
- After 5 years, approximately10 % of marriages are expected to end in divorce - another 10 % (or 20 % cumulatively) are divorced by about the tenth year after marriage. However, the 30% level is not reached until about the 18th year after marriage while the 40% level is only approached by the 50th year after marriage."
Source: Census Bureau: "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2001 (Issued February 2005)
Some people you've heard of who recently obtained divorces:
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/7565/2002186044514016493_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002186044514016493)
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/6983/2002155803608219923_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002155803608219923)
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/10473/2002177107354633951_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002177107354633951)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/6809/2002179005813901081_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002179005813901081)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/6809/2002132551764604656_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002132551764604656)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/7688/2001034539040934703_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001034539040934703)
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2498/insane7zouj9.jpg
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/10236/2002115264247587450_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002115264247587450)
364 years ago today, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/8361/2001300414099486157_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001300414099486157)
Hon. John Winthrop, Jr.
In a affidavit presented to John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder, Denis Clarke admitted to abandoning his wife, with whom he had two children, for another woman, with whom he had another two children. Mr. Clarke also stated his refusal to return to his original wife, thus giving the Puritan court no option but to punish Clarke and grant a divorce to his wife, Anne.
The Quarter Court's final decision read:
"Anne Clarke, beeing deserted by Denis Clarke hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, she is graunted to bee divorced."
As an aside, this is not to say no divorces occurred in North America before the Clarke's. In most Eastern Woodland Indian tribes, we know that an Indian wife could obtain a divorce by putting her spouse's stuff outside their home and that was his message he was no longer married. The man usually went back home to his mother, and they both became eligible to remarry. She usually ended up with the kids but there was no alimony or child support.
As you can see, the divorce was only possible because one party to the marriage was "at fault" and deemed guilty of committing a wrong against the other party to the marriage. That's pretty much the way it remained for the next 300 years in this country.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/7698/2002119631230656968_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002119631230656968)
In 1969, Miami lawyer Stanley Rosenblatt's The Divorce Racket called for a "revolution" that would eliminate fault grounds of divorce and give everyone a right to unilateral divorce after a cooling-off period of 60 days or so.
Rosenblatt cited several statistics that are useful in today's no-fault debate, in which we are arguing about the effects of restricting no-fault divorce without really having any comparable real-world examples of the more restrictive systems that are being proposed.
Some of Rosenblatt's statistics about a time just before "no-fault" was introduced:
One-fourth of marriages ended in divorce (p. 9).
Of these divorces, 85% to 90% were not contested! (p. 11).
"Extremely few lawyers" specialized in divorce. (p. 128)
The average man [spent] more time deciding upon a car purchase than in choosing a lifelong spouse, and the average woman often [knew] more about her hairdresser than about her intended." (p. 151).
Most common grounds of divorce in the period before "no-fault" (pp. 8-9):
1. Cruelty 40%
2. Desertion 33%
3. Adultery
4. Alcoholism
5. Felony conviction
6. Nonsupport
7. Impotence
Rosenblatt thought his reforms would greatly reduce the role of lawyers and judges* and drastically reduce employment opportunities for them, because the only issues left would be custody, property and support, "simple" issues which lawyers and judges had no particular expertise in.
* Boy was he wrong!
Today, The last-reported U.S. divorce rate for a calendar year, available as of May, 2005, is 38% divorces per capita per year, the provisional estimate for the year 2005 from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The absolute latest annual divorce rate is 37 % for the "year" ending Nov. 30, 2004.
Notes on understanding this per capita rate:
This rate is only for the states that keep track of the number of divorces. California, Colorado, Indiana and Louisiana do not.
Since every divorce involves two people, the percentage becomes somewhat more meaningful if you double it. E.g., 74% of the entire population gets divorced every year.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/7997/2002169428358285995_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002169428358285995)
Some people keep a sense of humor about it. SF.com poster Olevet threw a bash after one of his divorces.
Also worth noting,
- 43% of first marriages end within 15 years.
- Red states have a divorce rate 27% higher than blue states.
- 75% of all divorced people re-marry, half of them within three years
- Roughly 1 in 5 adults has ever divorced
- First marriages that end in divorce last about 8 years, on
average.
- Marriages are most susceptible to divorce in the early years of marriage.
- After 5 years, approximately10 % of marriages are expected to end in divorce - another 10 % (or 20 % cumulatively) are divorced by about the tenth year after marriage. However, the 30% level is not reached until about the 18th year after marriage while the 40% level is only approached by the 50th year after marriage."
Source: Census Bureau: "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2001 (Issued February 2005)
Some people you've heard of who recently obtained divorces:
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/7565/2002186044514016493_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002186044514016493)
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/6983/2002155803608219923_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002155803608219923)
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/10473/2002177107354633951_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002177107354633951)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/6809/2002179005813901081_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002179005813901081)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/6809/2002132551764604656_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002132551764604656)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/7688/2001034539040934703_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001034539040934703)
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2498/insane7zouj9.jpg