Wednesday Talk: October 7, 2026, 10am-12pm – hybrid
October 7 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Jim Phillips, Law, U of T
Title: “’I Did Not Commit Adultery’: A Unique (Parliamentary) Divorce from in the 1870s”
Abstract: An analysis of the marital breakdown of Robert and Eliza Campbell of Whitby in 1873, which centered on Robert’s claim that Eliza had committed adultery. In 1876 Robert petitioned the Parliament of Canada for a bill of divorce. He was refused and then Eliza successfully petitioned Parliament for a divorce for her. This lecture will discuss the law of marital breakdown in the 1870s, and why one woman unaccountably ‘won’ the legal battle.
Bio: Jim Phillips, Professor Emeritus, Law and History, University of Toronto. MA, PhD, LLB, FRSC, LSM. Honorary Fellow, American Society for Legal History. Editor-in-Chief, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. Co-author, among other books, of A History of Law in Canada (3 Volumes).
The link to register is coming soon.
The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
