Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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1. Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois Represented in the General Assembly That the bands of Matrimony heretofore existing between Fanny Ann Shaw of Edgar County and Joshua S. Shaw now confined in the penitentiary in the state of Indiana be, and the same is hereby dissolved2

2^d That the name of the aforesaid Fanny Ann Shaw be, and the same is hereby changed to Fanny Ann Kester her maiden name And that Glavina [~~...~~?] infant Daughter of the aforesaid Fanny Ann and Joshua be, and the same is hereby changed to Glavina KesterThis act to be in full force and virtue from and after its passage

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A Bill for an act to Divorce, and change the names of the persons therein mentioned

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[01]/[01]/[1836]
C. W H. 25 inst

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01/01/1836
Laid table 4^th July

1On December 22, 1835, Nelson W. Nunnally of the House of Representatives presented the petition of Fanny Ann Shaw requesting a divorce from Joshua S. Shaw. The House referred the petition to a select committee. Nunnally from the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 66 in the House on December 24. The House referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole and made it the order of the day for December 25. The Committee of the Whole reported back the bill on January 1, 1836, with sundry amendments, in which the House did not concur. The House tabled the bill until July 4, 1836, by a vote of 31 yeas to 17 nays, Abraham Lincoln not voting.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 120, 143, 194, 201-02.

2Although rare, legislative divorce was available in Illinois from 1818 until the Illinois Constitution of 1848, although there were no legislative divorces after 1838, when that body granted its last divorce by legislative act. After that time, all divorces in the state fell within the jurisdiction of the circuit courts.
Illinois Constitution, Article 3, Sec. 32 (1848); Eugene L. Gross and William L. Gross, An Index to All the Laws of the State of Illinois (Springfield: E. L. & W. L. Gross, 1869), 13; “An Act concerning Divorces,” approved 1 June 1827, The Revised Code of Laws of Illinois (1827), 181.