INTRODUCTION

In March 1765, Catherine Ettrick began proceedings in the Durham Consistory Court to obtain a separation from her husband William Ettrick. As we shall see, the Ettrick case is characterised by many similar themes to those found in other suits for separation in this period in terms of how both parties attempted to represent the behaviour of the other. However, in this chapter I shift the focus onto what it might be able to tell us about the role of women’s clothing in the context of marital breakdown, as Catherine Ettrick’s clothing appears again and again in her own allegations, in her husband’s response to them, and in the depositions of a number of witnesses. This analysis is exploratory as I look across the different ways in which the clothing of one woman was described, and demonstrate what might be gained from using a source perhaps less familiar to scholars of consumption than those explored in previous chapters. As we have seen, the use of court records as a source is nothing new as trials for theft have been effectively mined for details about stolen clothing. Indeed, trial records have been hailed as an essential corrective to ‘static’ lists of clothing found in sources like probate records and account books, as they can reveal things in movement and use.

Attention has already turned to the role of clothing and other objects in suits for breach of promise, and scholars have demonstrated that torn and disordered clothing could provide powerful evidence in rape trials. Nevertheless, the role of clothing and textiles in other types of litigation beyond theft remains underexplored. This is perhaps because trials for theft seem to be straightforwardly concerned with consumer goods in a way that other records are not, and appear to confirm the existence of the things described. In contrast, the clothing described in other types of litigation is often a more ambiguous blend of the real, the imagined, and the rhetorical; in the previous chapter, for instance, we found linen belonging to Mary Vezey described in different ways during her husband’s trial. It has therefore been studies of marital breakdown and violence which have noted the role that clothing could play, rather than scholarship on clothing and consumption. Indeed, if we look to records of suits for separation only for confirmation of what women owned, we must find ourselves disappointed.