A Divorce Decree in 19th Century Greenwich

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time. Looking Back: 1994

Many people living in these latter years the 20th century presuppose that divorces did not occur in earlier times. Marriages back then far more often than not grew and persisted longer than they do today.

But there were those rare episodes when matrimonial bliss went sour under arduous circumstances. These include abandonment, adultery and failure to provide.

A divorce settlement unparalleled and recorded local history is registered in the Greenwich land records. Dated from 1867, it involved a couple named John H. Munroe and Emma Green; they had married the previous year. The recorded court judgment touches on an interesting account of a marriage that should never have happened in the first place.

As the decree states, "immediately before said marriage took place, said Emma made oath before a Justice of the Peace that she was pregnant with the child by the petitioner (Munroe) and caused him to be arrested... and that to be then and there held in confinement."

Munroe denied he was the father. He also requested time to hire a lawyer to defend himself, which was refused. Faced with jail and imprisonment, "...he married said Emma."

But there is an interesting twist in the said saga. The record declares that "since said marriage, he has learned that said Emma before said marriage repeatedly had carnal connection with other men, and that she was not a fit and proper person for him to marry, showing further that said Emma concealed all such misconduct from him before said marriage and he has not sent said marriage cohabited with her for the reason aforesaid..."

Munroe's problems were exacerbated by several suits brought against him by Emma's father "... for her board and clothes and has tried in every way to annoy and injure the petitioner and has had him arrested on a false criminal charge."

The petition for divorce was filed on November 26, 1866. Munroe appeared at the hearing, and Emma was represented by Ferris Child, Esq.

The court found the allegations made by Munroe to be true, and he was granted a divorce discharging him "...from all duties and covenants which he is under by reason of the marriage aforesaid, and said John H Munroe is declared to be a single and unmarried."

Jeffrey Bingham Mead is a free-lance writer and direct descendant of one of the town's founding families. He grew up in backcountry Greenwich.