Lawrence Stone - The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800

Copyright 1977 by Lawrence Stone.
All rights reserved.

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International Standard Book Number:
0-06-014142-5

Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 77-50

Manufactured in the United States of America

ACLS Humanities E-Book handheld edition 2013
978-1-59740-989-6
HEB01414.0001.001

TO MY FAMILY, WITHOUT WHOM

The problems, being existential, are universal; their solutions, being human, are diverse The road to the grand abstractions of science winds through a thicket of singular facts.

(C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York, 1973, p. 363.)

ii Problems of Interpretation
Bias to the Elite - Bias to Puritans - Growth of Literacy - Attitudes Inferred from, Actions - Schematization of Pluralistic Data

iii Historiography
False Assumptions - Recent Work

ii Six Points of View
Biological - Sociological - Political - Economic - Psychological- Sexual

b. Types:
Extended Stem and Nuclear - Defects of the New Orthodoxy

iv Marriage
Methods of Contract - Spousals - Clandestine Marriages - Lord Hardwickes Marriage Act 1753

v Separation and Divorce
Alternatives for the Rich - Alternatives for the Poor

i Nuptiality
Causes - Facts

ii Age at First Marriage
The Elite - The Plebs - Consequences

iii Duration of Marriage
Facts - Results

iv Horizons of Marriage
Social and Geographical

2 BIRTH
Numbers - Rich and Poor

i Mortality Rates
Infants and Children - Young Adults

ii Examples
The Verney Family - The Wandesford Family - The Bee Family

iii The Causes of Death
Plague and Smallpox - Bacterial Infection: Filth - Malaria and Tuberculosis - Childbirth - Accident - Medical Practice - Indifference and Neglect

a. The Lineage and the Kin

b. Marriage and Property - Primogeniture

c. Good Lordship

d. Honour

ii Plebs
The Neighbourhood and the Community

i The Society
Personal Violence- Hostility and Suspicion: Advice of Sir William Wentworth; The Word Friend; Village Life - Conclusion: Causes

iii Parents and Children
High Infant and Child Mortality - Fostering Out: Causes; Results (Examples: Simonds DEwres, William Blundell, Samuel Bamford, John Sydenham) - Paternal Attitude to Children (Examples: William Blundell, Ralph Josselin, Adam Martindale) - Maternal Attitude to Children (Example: Mrs Alice Thornton)

iv Siblings
Brother-brother - Brother-sister

PART THREE: THE RESTRICTED PATRIARCHAL
NUCLEAR FAMILY 1550-1700

ii Religious
From Celibacy to Holy Matrimony - From Church to Household

i Intensified Regulation
Economic Controls - Moral Controls

ii Weakened Regulation
Geographical Mobility - Institutionalization of Family Functions: Poor Relief; Schooling - Escape from Economic Constraints

i Areas of Permissiveness
Breast-feeding - Toilet Training - Childhood Sexuality

iii The Causes of Repression
Puritan Interest in Children - Original Sin - Psychological Theories - Hierarchical Social Values

i Subordination of Wives
Facts: Property; Status; Women and Work - Causes

ii The Education of Women
Classically Educated Elite Women - Decline of the Ideal of the Educated Woman - Examples

ii Christian Eschatology
Parents and Children - Children and Parents - Examples: Simonds DEwes; Oliver Heywood; Cotton Mather; Richard Kay

5 CONCLUSION
Facts of Reinforcement of Patriarchy - Cause of Reinforcement of Patriarchy

1 INTRODUCTION
Individualism in a Deferential Society - Definition of Individualism: Self-awareness; Autonomy

i Self-awareness
Evidence: portrait busts and paintings - genres of writing: diary; autobiography; novel

ii Autonomy
Toleration in Religion - Contract Basisfor the State - Rejection of Divine Right

iii Philosophical Ideas
Control of the Environment - Possessive Individualism - Pursuit of Pleasure - Hostility to Cruelty

i Attacks on Patriarchy
Abolition of the Court of Wards - The Strict Settlement

iii Changing Attitude to Death
Mourning Rituals - Protection from Death - Traumatic Effects - Methodistl Evangelical Responses

i Power and Motives
Decision-making: 4 options - Motives: 4 options Social Requirements for Change

ii Propagandists
Court writers of the 1630s; Defoe; Addison and Steele; Playwrights; Hogarth; Halifax; Richardson

iv Attitude to Romantic Love
The Role of the Novel - Hostility to Romantic Love Before 1780 - Acceptance of Romantic Love 1780-1820

b. Motives
Examples: John Verney; George Butt; Mr Elers

a. Decision Makers
Examples: Ralph Josselin; James Frelwell; William Cole

b. Motives
Examples: The Cumberland Brothers; John Wesley; Thomas Turner; George Crabbe; John Knyveton

iii The Labouring Poor
Francis Place

a Men
Examples: Philip Carteret; George Nicholas; Duke of Hamilton; Lord North; Nicholas Blundell; Joseph Banks; Duke of Newcastle; Earl of Pembroke; Earl of Westmorland

b. Women
Examples: Anne Halkett; Alice Wandesford; Mary Wortley (Montagu); Mary Granville (Delany); Harriet Spencer (Duncannon); Hester Lynch Salusbury (Thrale); Mariana Drake

4 CASE HISTORIES
Problems of Interpretation: Case of Admiral Yeo

i The Middling Ranks
Examples: Richard Steele; Thomas Wright; Thomas Turner; George Crabbe

ii The Squirarchy and Nobility
Examples: Richard Legh; John, Earl of Bristol; Duke of Newcastle; Edward Montagu; Hester Lynch Thrale; Lady Sarah Lennox; Philip Francis; Lord William Russell

iii The Propertyless Poor
Example: Francis Place - Evidence of Popular Attitudes

ii Bachelors
Rise in Numbers - Results: Job-hunting, Aggression - Conclusion

iii Spinsters
Rise in Numbers - Job Opportunities: Housekeepers; Pensioners; Companions; Governesses - Conclusion

6 FOREIGN COMPARISONS
New England - France

i Social Classes and Maritial Types
Variables: Decision-making in Mate Selection; Motives in Mate Selection; Authority in the Family; Marital Relations; Sexual Satisfaction - Four Weberian Ideal Marital Types

a. Positive
Privacy: the ha-ha, the corridor, and the dumb waiter

b. Negative
Exaggerated expectations of marital felicity; Idle wives; Conflict of duties to husband and child; Limited freedom of choice for women; Sexual segregation of leisure activities: the rich; the lower-middle class; the poor

b. Recognition of the Child
Naming Patterns; Clothes; Books and Toys; Family Portraits

c. From Deference to Respect
Ideas; Modes of Address

d. Growth of Contraception
Causes: Upper Classes (Theology; Concern of Husbands; Economic Incentives; Child Oriented Society); Lower-Middle and Lower Classes - Methods