Author s Morals and Manners of Her Time

Author's Morals and Manners of Her Time

Gentry Women and Men copyright 2007 by Tracy Marks WOMEN: Marriage was a business proposition, and the dowry of a woman was the most important determinant of her marriageability, since her husband would support her and provide servants to do most of the childrearing and household tasks. Think of the dowry as the equivalent of the total working income women would contribute to their family throughout the course of their marriage. The separation we experience between private life and public life, between business and personal affairs, did not exist for the gentry and aristocracy.

The average for a young woman to marry was 22. An unmarried woman was considered unmarriageable and deemed a spinster by the time she was 30. If she had no wealth of her own, her only options were: 1) Be supported by and live with brother and his wife, sometimes against their will. 2) Work everyday as a ladies’ companion, governess, or teacher on minimal salary (such as 10 poundsa year), living in genteel poverty, totally dependent upon employers, and with little personal life.

MEN: The eldest son inherited his father’s estate; younger sons inherited little, and were usually compelled to marry into wealth and/or earn their own living. The only respectable occupations open to them were: a) officer in the army (and to a lesser extent, the navy), for which they had to purchase an officer’s commission; b) London lawyer (country lawyers were not respectable); c) the clergy (not lucrative, required finding a patron to bestow a “living”). Although beginning in the late 18 th century, marrying for love became nearly as important to many men and women as marrying for money, men who were not eldest sons of wealthy landowners generally sought to marry women with substantial dowries. Men tended to marry between the ages of 27 -30.