MARRIAGE IN 18TH CENTURY

GAMZE KUMRU

1. Choosing Spouse

Economic, social or political consolidation Marriage was primarily a contact between two

families for the exchange of concrete benefits.

The typical landlord would be delighted if his sons married wealthy heiresses, regardless of the source of their fortunes.

Daughters had to marry off well, without loss of status.To find and secure suitable marriages for their daughters was matter of ceaseless calculating and campaingning for the landowner and his wife

“If a young woman has beauty birth breeding wit sense manners modesty and all to an extreme; If she has not money she is nobody she had as good want them all; nothing but money now reccomends a woman; the men play the game all into their own hands.” Moll Flanders

The villa was built in 1745 by Fabrizio Grech as a dowry for the marriage of his daughter Maria Teresa to Nicolas Perdicoma

i Bologna.

To make his daughter attractive on the marriage market, a landowner customarily bestowed a dowry on his daughter at the time of her marriage.

Having daughters was a serious drain an family’s sources

These circumstances made marriage arrangements within the land owning orders a matter of delicate negotitation

“So far, madam, from your being concerned alone [in your

marriage], your concern is the least, or surely the least important. It is the honor of your family which is concerned in this alliance; you are only the instrument. Do you conceive, mistress, that in an intermarriage between kingdoms . . . The princess herself is alone considered in th

e match? No, it is a match between two kingdoms rather than between two persons. The same happens in great families such as ours. The alliance between the families is the principal matter.” Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones

Personal affection,

companionship and friendship Physical attraction

“ - You know she has nothing and you may have several ladies with good fourtunes.

- I love the girl and I will never please my pocket in marrying and not please my fancy.” Moll Flanders

Parents threaten to withdraw financial support

Young men and women among the lowest levels of laboring poor could marry without fearing that their parents would punish them through disinheritance because there was no property to be inherited.

2. Wedding

The Wedding of Stephen Beckingham and Mary Cox - William Hogarth,

1729

Clandestine marriage

quikness

cheapness

secrecy Fleet marriage Bigamy

1753 Marriage Act

An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage

Lord Hardwicke

The first statutory legislation Parental consent under the age

of 21 In the church By regular clergymen During daytime

AFTER

BEFORE

3. Widowhood

Freedom

Jointure

Spouse can remarry

4. Divorce

It was only the wealthy who could afford the expenses Act of Parliament Religious Ecclesiastical Court

But for poor who had little property dissolving marriage was much more easier. All that required was community’s approval, consent of all parties and a change of households.

Divorce would not become legal alternative for the majority until 1857.

Wife sale

William Hogarth’s Marriage à-la-mode (1743–1745)

1. The Marriage Settlement

2. The Tête à Tête

3. The Inspection

4. The Toilette

5. The Bagnio

6. The Lady's Death