Chance v. Chance. Researching an abused wife in the early eighteenth century

Abstract

This paper discusses an early eighteenth-century Chancery case involving the extreme physical and mental abuse of a wife by a husband intent on stripping her of all her property, and looks at this in the context of the contemporary legal and social framework and the options for redress available to such a woman. In the process it explores the genealogy of the Catholic Arden family who were located near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. In the absence of many Catholic records, especially for baptisms and marriages, it explores the use of wills, recusancy records, Chancery records, and correspondence to fill in the gaps and create a family history. Introduction On 10 January 1719/20, a Chancery suit was taken out on behalf of Mary Chance by her brother Caesar Johnson in an attempt to recover the deeds to her real estate, the inheritance due to her daughters from their father, and her money, jewellery, clothes and other possessions. She also petitioned for the control of her three children by her former husband, James Arden, who were being held by her abusive third husband, William Chance. 1 The widowed Mary had been flattered into a precipitate third marriage, and was held captive, physically and mentally abused, while William Chance worked to deprive her of everything she owned. Eventually she escaped, wearing only her shift, nightgown and slippers, hid all day in a hayloft and finally sought refuge in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. As with many Chancery cases, only the initial complaint and witness statements exist, but it is possible to make some deductions about the eventual outcome using these and other documentary evidence such as wills and two other Chancery cases. All this enables us to reconstruct the family networks that Mary married into, and to shed light on the legal and social position of an early eighteenth-century wife. Availability of Catholic records in the early eighteenth century Following the defeat and flight of Catholic King James II in 1690, there was a steady decline in the numbers of Roman Catholics, estimated by the mid-eighteenth century at about 70,000 or 1 per cent of the population. 2 There were concentrations of Catholic families in certain counties, which included Worcestershire. Some who were Catholic in secret were prepared to be baptised or married by an Anglican priest in order to avoid legal penalties. Prevented from holding office and otherwise legally disadvantaged, many converted to Protestantism. Some had the eldest son baptised in the Church of England to ensure the family inheritance, and others obtained certification from the local bishop that they had taken communion according to Anglican rites to avoid a charge of recusancy. Before about 1700 Catholic registers of births and marriages were not kept for fear of endangering any priest who did so. After this date Catholic registers increasingly came into existence, usually recorded in Latin. Burials of Catholics, which had to take place in consecrated-and hence Church of England-ground may therefore appear in Anglican registers....