Tea & History Speaker Series: The Campbells – Divorce & Scandal in 1870s Whitby with Jim Phillips
March 10 @ 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Whitby Central Library – Meeting Room 1
“I DID NOT COMMIT ADULTERY!” ~ Eliza Campbell
Did you know there was a famous legal battle involving a Whitby couple 150 years ago? This presentation will focus on the socio-legal history of the 1873 breakdown of the marriage of Robert and Eliza Campbell of Whitby. Over half-dozen years saw the couple square off three times in the Ontario courts, and another three times in the Parliament of Canada, all while living in close proximity to each other in Whitby.
Jim Phillips, MA, LLB, PhD, FRSC, is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Department of History. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, and co-author of A History of Law in Canada Volumes 1 & 2. He will talk about his forthcoming book ‘I Did Not Commit Adultery’: Law and Gender in Ontario in the 1870s, which details the Campbell case.