I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s
This book chronicles the breakdown of the marriage of Robert and Eliza Campbell, a couple living in Whitby, Ontario. Their case precipitated a six-year battle in the Ontario courts and the Parliament of Canada in the 1870s.
In the Court of Common Pleas, Robert Campbell successfully sued the man he alleged had seduced his wife for criminal conversation, and Eliza Campbell successfully sued Robert’s brother James Campbell for defamation. Eliza Campbell failed, however, to get an order for alimony in the Court of Chancery. When this litigation was concluded, Robert Campbell petitioned Parliament for an Act of Divorce: the only way to get a divorce in Ontario before 1930. In 1876, he failed to persuade the Senate divorce committee that Eliza had committed adultery – the only ground for a divorce at that time – but Eliza succeeded in having an Act of Separation passed in her favour.
I Did Not Commit Adultery is a detailed study of how the law governed married women in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Along the way, Jim Phillips reveals the operations of the civil courts, the forensic skills of leading members of the Ontario legal profession, constitutional law, and parliamentary divorce, which has never before been examined in detail by Canadian historians.
1147296596
I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s
This book chronicles the breakdown of the marriage of Robert and Eliza Campbell, a couple living in Whitby, Ontario. Their case precipitated a six-year battle in the Ontario courts and the Parliament of Canada in the 1870s.
In the Court of Common Pleas, Robert Campbell successfully sued the man he alleged had seduced his wife for criminal conversation, and Eliza Campbell successfully sued Robert’s brother James Campbell for defamation. Eliza Campbell failed, however, to get an order for alimony in the Court of Chancery. When this litigation was concluded, Robert Campbell petitioned Parliament for an Act of Divorce: the only way to get a divorce in Ontario before 1930. In 1876, he failed to persuade the Senate divorce committee that Eliza had committed adultery – the only ground for a divorce at that time – but Eliza succeeded in having an Act of Separation passed in her favour.
I Did Not Commit Adultery is a detailed study of how the law governed married women in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Along the way, Jim Phillips reveals the operations of the civil courts, the forensic skills of leading members of the Ontario legal profession, constitutional law, and parliamentary divorce, which has never before been examined in detail by Canadian historians.
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I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s

I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s

by Jim Phillips
I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s

I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s

by Jim Phillips

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Overview

This book chronicles the breakdown of the marriage of Robert and Eliza Campbell, a couple living in Whitby, Ontario. Their case precipitated a six-year battle in the Ontario courts and the Parliament of Canada in the 1870s.
In the Court of Common Pleas, Robert Campbell successfully sued the man he alleged had seduced his wife for criminal conversation, and Eliza Campbell successfully sued Robert’s brother James Campbell for defamation. Eliza Campbell failed, however, to get an order for alimony in the Court of Chancery. When this litigation was concluded, Robert Campbell petitioned Parliament for an Act of Divorce: the only way to get a divorce in Ontario before 1930. In 1876, he failed to persuade the Senate divorce committee that Eliza had committed adultery – the only ground for a divorce at that time – but Eliza succeeded in having an Act of Separation passed in her favour.
I Did Not Commit Adultery is a detailed study of how the law governed married women in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Along the way, Jim Phillips reveals the operations of the civil courts, the forensic skills of leading members of the Ontario legal profession, constitutional law, and parliamentary divorce, which has never before been examined in detail by Canadian historians.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781487517465
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Publication date: 10/21/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 432
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Jim Phillips is a professor emeritus of law and history at the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and Short Forms                                                                                

Principal Members of the Byrne and Campbell Families                                          
 
Chapter 1 – Introduction                                                                                             
Chapter 2 – The Town of Whitby, the Campbell and Byrne Families,
and the Campbell Marriage to August 1873                                                              
Chapter 3 – Robert Campbell’s Separation from Eliza, August 1873                       
Chapter 4 – Eliza Campbell’s Ejection from the Family Home, September 1873   
Chapter 5 – The Campbells Go to Court 1: Robert Campbell v. George Gordon for Criminal Conversation, 1873                                                                               
Chapter 6 – The Campbells Go to Court II: Eliza Campbell (Robert Campbell et ux) v. James Campbell for Defamation, 1874                                                      
Chapter 7 – The Campbells Go to Court III: Eliza Campbell v. Robert
Campbell
for Alimony, 1874 -1875                                                                         
Chapter 8 – Robert Campbell’s Petition for Divorce, 1876                                     
Chapter 9 – The Senate Divorce Committee 1: The Case for Robert Campbell     
Chapter 10 – The Senate Divorce Committee 2: The Case for Eliza Campbell      
Chapter 11 – The Senate Divorce Committee 3: Counsels’ Speeches and the Committee’s Report                                                                                                 
Chapter 12 – Eliza Campbell’s Separation Bill in Parliament, 1877                        
Chapter 13 – An Interlude, 1878                                                                               
Chapter 14 – Eliza Campbell’s Separation Bill in Parliament, Again – 1879           
Chapter 15 – The Principals after 1880 – Winners and Losers                                
Chapter 16 – Conclusion                                                                                                                                                                  
Appendices
Appendix 1: Eliza Campbell’s Petition to the Senate, 29 March 1876                               
Appendix 2: Eliza Campbell’s Separation Bill, 1877                                                         
Appendix 3: The Separation Act, 1879

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