HLGC Lecture co-hosted with Northern Legal History Group 'Bigamy in Nineteenth-century Nottinghamshire and Lancashire'

Guest Speaker: Professor Rebecca Probert, University of Exeter

Chair: Dr Edward Goodwin, University of Nottingham

Abstract: This talk explores the changing legal framework governing bigamy in nineteenth-century England and Wales. Taking Nottinghamshire and Lancashire as case studies, it analyses the characteristics of those prosecuted for bigamy and what this can tell us about the incidence of, and attitudes towards, bigamy.

Speaker bio: Professor Probert is a leading authority on marriage and its relation to family history and genealogy. She has written on all aspects of modern family law, but the focus of her research is on the history and current law of marriage, cohabitation, bigamy, and divorce. In 2015 she was seconded to the Law Commission to work on their scoping paper Getting Married(published in December 2015) and from August 2019 to July 2022 I acted as specialist advisor to the Commission on their Weddings Project. From September 2020 to March 2022 she was also a co-investigator on a Nuffield-funded project on non-legally binding wedding ceremonies led by Dr Rajnaara Akhtar investigating why marriage ceremonies occur outside the legal framework in England and Wales