Anne Clarke’s Heartbreaking Victory

In the heart of Puritan New England, where piety clashes with humanity, Anne Clarke stood before the stern faces of Boston's magistrates asking for divorce. None had ever been granted before in the rapidly growing colony of Massachusetts Bay. Her fate, and that of her children, would be in the hands of the court, but she was more than prepared to make her case. 

Anne Clarke makes her case in court

Anne filed for divorce from her husband on the grounds of marital abandonment and adultery. Given his calloused nature toward his wife and children, Mr. Clark gave Anne a surprising gift that would make the process easy. He wrote out a signed affidavit in which he clearly explained that he had knowingly and purposefully abandoned his wife, he had no desire to return to her, and he was now living with another woman. 

Divorce among Puritan communities was not illegal, but strongly discouraged. Adultery was the most common grounds for divorce, but desertion and cruelty were also accepted as legal cause. However, women had the greater challenge obtaining a divorce, requiring higher standards of proof for their spouse’s offences. 

Fortunately for Anne, the facts were clear. Not only was her husband open and unrepentant about his ongoing affair, but he had also fathered two children with the other woman. 

In a ruling recorded on January 5, 1643, the court noted that Denis Clarke had indeed deserted his wife, refused to return, and confessed to living adultery, so therefore Anne Clarke “is granted to be divorced."

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“If there be any that provideth not for his own, and namely for them of his household, he denieth the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

(1 Timothy 5:8; 1599 Geneva Bible)