Browsing: Legal Papers of John Adams, Volume 1

4. That is, Godolphin, Repertorium Canonicum 508. The definitions are “Alimony .... that proportion of the Husbands Estate, which the Wife sues in the Ecclesiastical Court, to have allowed her for present subsistence and livelyhood, according to Law, upon any such separation from her Husband, as is not caused by her own elopement or Adultery.... Elopement ... that voluntary departure of a Wife from her Husband to live with an Adulterer.”