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The
Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette 27 Jul 1861
Page 6
SUFFOLK AND EASTERN COUNTIES.
Court of Divorce, July 18. - GRINLING v. GRINLING. -
The marriage in this case took place in June, 1842, and the parties lived together first on a farm belonging to Mrs. GRINLING, at Laxfield, in Suffolk. There were several children of the marriage, of whom only one survives. Mrs. GRINLING accused her husband of adultery and cruelty, and prayed that her marriage might be dissolved. She stated that in 1851 he took to drinking to excess; that he was sometimes tipsy for weeks together; and that when in that state he used violent and abusive language to her, struck her, and occasionally kicked her out of bed. She had on two or three occasions found letters in his pockets, which gave her reason to suspect that he had formed an adulterous connexion with another woman, and she had left her home and gone to live with her friends. She had on each occasion been persuaded to return. In March, 1858, he gave up the farm, and they went to live at the house of his father, in the same parish, but his drunkenness and his violence continued, and she again left him on the 27th of June, 1858, and went to her mother's at King's Lynn. After she had stayed there for a few weeks her husband wrote to her to tell her that her son was seriously ill, and if she did not return immediately she might not see him alive. She then, in the middle of August returned to Laxfield, and remained there for about a week. On the 22nd of August she and her husband had a quarrel while they were at dinner, in the course of which he became very violent, ran upstairs into her bedroom, collected her clothes into a heap, and struck a match to set fire to them. She tried to prevent him, and he struck her on the head and threatened her life. She escaped into another room and barred herself in. On the same evening he took her up a cup of tea and then flung her on the floor with such violence that her mouth bled. His father then went upstairs to them. She stayed up all that night with the servant, and early on the following morning left the house, and has since lived with her own family. - Mrs. GRINLING's evidence was corroborated by two servants who had lived with her. One of them, Sarah MILLER, who had been in the service of Mr. GRINLING's father, also proved that a few weeks after Mrs. GRINLING had left the house, in August, 1858, Mr. GRINLING clandestinely brought a girl named Maria ALDRED, the daughter of a blacksmith, into the house, and kept her concealed in his bedroom for eleven weeks. She was then discovered by his father, who turned her out. It was also proved that the respondent and Maria ALDRED had since been living in adultery at other places in the neighbourhood. - His lordship granted a decree nisi, with costs.