lOMoARcPSD|1485157
Week 4 - Marriage increasingly a decision for two people –
but limits to freedom of
The Making of Modern Britain c1750-c1850 (University of Wolverhampton)
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by Ellie Dolman ()
, lOMoARcPSD|1485157
The Family in Britain, 1830-1939: Marriage. Week 4.
Marriage: Key element in family formation – formalised by wedding ceremony (Hardwicke Marriage
Act, 1753).
Family formation.
Marriages can take anywhere if conducted under ordained clergyman undergone COE.
Must Undergo bands- announce tended union 3 Sundays before weddings.
Licence.
Large increase in marriage by licences.
Couple must be good character,
marriage conducted in public, not secret.
Parental consent.
parishes’ sometimes overlook for money.
Clandestine marriages- no consent, under age- allowed to marry if partners under age-
sanctity collapsing.
An act for preventing clandestine marriage- all marriages to get married in parish, and must
get consent- married in Anglican church.
Changing nature of marriage, 1830s-1930s
• The end of marriage?
• Increasing freedom of choice in marriage partner?
• From economic calculation to romantic love?
• Increasingly companionate marriage, based on affection and respect?
- Yes, or No?
The end of marriage?
• Familiar fears about the impact of industrialisation and urbanisation
Peter Gaskell in 1830s, writing of textile mill workers:
‘The chastity of marriage is but little known among them’, their lives characterised by ‘parental
cruelty, filial disobedience, neglect of conjugal rights, absence of maternal love, destruction of
brotherly and sisterly affection’.
- MC set trends and familial ideals- recurring concern of morality of wc.
- Marital status and relations of poor- continual debate- believed that they were of deviant
behaviour, prostitution, wedlock, domestic value.
- WC not undifferentiated mass.
- Women and Marriage- those who are respectable, those who are rough.
- Respectable life- no drink, gamble, language, rough sports, chastity and fidelity.
- Cohabitation and marriage.
- WC expected to take their income and stand up to husband.
- Good husband- not too sexually demanding, money to life, love children.
No evidence of the abandonment of marriage and especially of monogamy as an ideal and
aspiration.
Most people expected to marry as part of the ‘normal’ life-cycle and marked a new union
with a wedding ceremony.
Downloaded by Ellie Dolman ()
Week 4 - Marriage increasingly a decision for two people –
but limits to freedom of
The Making of Modern Britain c1750-c1850 (University of Wolverhampton)
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by Ellie Dolman ()
, lOMoARcPSD|1485157
The Family in Britain, 1830-1939: Marriage. Week 4.
Marriage: Key element in family formation – formalised by wedding ceremony (Hardwicke Marriage
Act, 1753).
Family formation.
Marriages can take anywhere if conducted under ordained clergyman undergone COE.
Must Undergo bands- announce tended union 3 Sundays before weddings.
Licence.
Large increase in marriage by licences.
Couple must be good character,
marriage conducted in public, not secret.
Parental consent.
parishes’ sometimes overlook for money.
Clandestine marriages- no consent, under age- allowed to marry if partners under age-
sanctity collapsing.
An act for preventing clandestine marriage- all marriages to get married in parish, and must
get consent- married in Anglican church.
Changing nature of marriage, 1830s-1930s
• The end of marriage?
• Increasing freedom of choice in marriage partner?
• From economic calculation to romantic love?
• Increasingly companionate marriage, based on affection and respect?
- Yes, or No?
The end of marriage?
• Familiar fears about the impact of industrialisation and urbanisation
Peter Gaskell in 1830s, writing of textile mill workers:
‘The chastity of marriage is but little known among them’, their lives characterised by ‘parental
cruelty, filial disobedience, neglect of conjugal rights, absence of maternal love, destruction of
brotherly and sisterly affection’.
- MC set trends and familial ideals- recurring concern of morality of wc.
- Marital status and relations of poor- continual debate- believed that they were of deviant
behaviour, prostitution, wedlock, domestic value.
- WC not undifferentiated mass.
- Women and Marriage- those who are respectable, those who are rough.
- Respectable life- no drink, gamble, language, rough sports, chastity and fidelity.
- Cohabitation and marriage.
- WC expected to take their income and stand up to husband.
- Good husband- not too sexually demanding, money to life, love children.
No evidence of the abandonment of marriage and especially of monogamy as an ideal and
aspiration.
Most people expected to marry as part of the ‘normal’ life-cycle and marked a new union
with a wedding ceremony.
Downloaded by Ellie Dolman ()
