By John Slaughter
This article was published in the April 2026 edition of Soul Search, the Journal of The Sole Society
Our charts are often prepared on a best fit basis and the connections made are not always the result of detailed research. We encourage members to undertake their own research to verify connections and hopefully feedback to us any changes that need to be made. Sometimes new information comes to light that requires charts to be amended or added to. This happened when I was directed to a Divorce Petition that was dated in 1880.
An Elizabeth Saul filed a divorce petition on 12 June 1880 against her husband Peter Saul on the grounds of adultery and cruelty. The petition stated that she and Peter Saul had married on 22 July 1876 at the Register Office in Sheffield. The marriage certificate filed with the petition showed that Peter Saul was a widower, aged 45 years, a builder by trade and that his father was Thomas Saul, a bricklayer. Elizabeth’s maiden name was given as Gregory, she was of full age, a widow and her father was Joseph Crookes (deceased), a woodman. Her address on the marriage certificate is given as Spring Gardens, Buxton, Derbyshire. This is the same address as she gave on the divorce petition so it is reasonable to assume that by June 1880 she had separated from Peter and gone back to her former home.
The petition states that she had lived with her lawful husband at Nottingham Street, Sheffield but they had no issue. She had been treated with great unkindness and cruelty and kept without sufficient food. In March 1880 Peter Saul had committed adultery with Mary Scott at Dickens Hotel, Norfolk Street, Strand, London and frequently had committed adultery with Mary Scott at 159 Ellesmere Road, Sheffield.
The Divorce Hearing took place at the High Court of Justice on 20 November 1880 and newspaper reports add a bit more detail. It is said that the Petitioner (Elizabeth) was an elderly lady and was very deaf. The Respondent (Peter) used to go out in the evening and only allowed his wife 10 shillings a week to buy all necessaries, despite him being a builder and being in a good position. She had lived on cocoa, tea, bread and butter and had become very ill. Her husband had brought in meat and fruit for himself. He did not contest the petition. The Courts Judgement was that adultery had been proved, but not the cruelty as it had not been shown that physical coercion had been used to restrain his wife from having sufficient food. A decree of judicial separation was granted but not a divorce.
At that time the law was governed by the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. Under this Act divorce proceedings were removed from ecclesiastical courts to civil courts and had the effect of widening the availability of divorce. There was however a difference in the criteria between the sexes. A man could petition for a divorce solely on the grounds of his wife’s adultery however woman had to prove in addition other offences such as incest, cruelty, bigamy, desertion etc. This seems to explain why only a separation was granted and not a divorce. The law was further amended in 1882.
This judgement was presumably a blow to Peter Saul as it meant that he could not marry Mary Scott. The couple did eventually marry in 1885. Presumably Elizabeth had died by then but I cannot verify that.
Peter Saul was recorded on one of our Yorkshire charts but prior to the above information I did not have knowledge of the marriage to Elizabeth. His first wife was Sarah Shaw who he married in 1852. They had nine children though sadly it appears that only one made it to adulthood. Sarah died on 28 April 1876 at the age of 43 years, probably from childbirth. As we can see Peter quickly remarried but this was an unhappy affair.
Peter had three children by his third wife Mary Scott, the first two being born prior to their marriage in 1885. They were Annie Scott Saul in 1880, Ruth Saul in 1882 and James Latham Saul in 1886. The latter two died young. Annie Scott Saul married Frank Jennings in 1908.
Peter died in 1893 and was buried at the Burngreave Cemetery in Sheffield, aged 63 years. In the same grave is a Jonathan Saul who is described as a son of Peter and who died on 24 March 1880 aged 7 years. I cannot find a birth for Jonathan and suspect that he was the child of Peter and his first wife Sarah who is recorded in the birth indexes as Frank and who I can find no further record of. Following Peter’s death his wife Mary remarried William Bush in December 1894.
We can trace Peter’s ancestry back a couple of generations to a John Saul and Elizabeth Spencer who lived at Norton near Campsall, Yorkshire and had six children born between 1792 and 1806.
Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield ,Where Peter is buried. This image is by Joaquín O’Ryan and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.