Legal restrictions on marriage: Marriage and inequality in the Austrian Tyrol during the nineteenth century

Under the legal restrictions on marriage in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg region of Austria between 1820 and 1920, members of the lower classes could marry only with the prior consent of the village authorities. Local and provincial politicians justified the necessity of these laws on the basis of the overpopulation and widespread impoverishment, which, they alleged, had resulted from the rise in lower-class marriages since the onset of industrialization. An analysis of the background and objectives of these legal interventions into marital behavior, however, reveals a different picture in regard to their effect and their effectiveness. The limitations on marriage affected life most profoundly in precisely those areas where people already tended to marry less often and later in life. Where changes in marital behavior did occur, they did not conflict with traditional behavior but rather resulted from the adaptation of the latter to altered living and working conditions. Thus it was material considerations that led the group of new wage-earners to delay or even forego marriage. The analysis shows that the limitations on marriage were directed less against the supposed causes of impoverishment than towards the continuation of social inequality in marriage and the stabilization of the status quo.     

Women,family, and small business in late nineteenth century Sweden

In Sweden, unmarried women and widows had a long historical tradition of involvement in the retail trades and in handicrafts. They supervised enterprises between the death of their husbands and another male heir, and poor women had the right to become hawkers or innkeepers. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the number of unmarried women increased, and the authorities wanted to open new trades in which women could earn their own living and not become an economic burden on local government. Given these new possibilities, women developed several different strategies, which can be seen in the three Swedish towns of Sundsvall, Härnösand, and Umeå when their business history of the later part of the nineteenth century is examined. Women's business involvements exhibit the older patterns of family survival, but now add motives having to do with status maintenance and emancipation.     

Women,family, and small business in late nineteenth century Sweden

In Sweden, unmarried women and widows had a long historical tradition of involvement in the retail trades and in handicrafts. They supervised enterprises between the death of their husbands and another male heir, and poor women had the right to become hawkers or innkeepers. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the number of unmarried women increased, and the authorities wanted to open new trades in which women could earn their own living and not become an economic burden on local government. Given these new possibilities, women developed several different strategies, which can be seen in the three Swedish towns of Sundsvall, Härnösand, and Umeå when their business history of the later part of the nineteenth century is examined. Women's business involvements exhibit the older patterns of family survival, but now add motives having to do with status maintenance and emancipation.     

Medicolegal investigation of an eighteenth century homicide

The skeleton of an adult man, recovered from an eighteenth century French fort site in Indiana, exhibited a series of sharp force wounds. The lesions, three cranial and one postcranial, had apparently been made by a heavy metal instrument similar to one of the European ax heads discovered elsewhere at the site. In this paper we describe the wounds, argue that the instrument used to create them was a European ax, and offer the opinion that the manner of death in this case was homicide.     

Independence and inter-dependence: Household formation patterns in eighteenth century Kythera,Greece

While earlier hypotheses concerning the household formation patterns of Greek populations were proved mistaken, further hypotheses have been proposed. Though the small number of existing studies prevents us from conclusively describing the household formation patterns in nineteenth century Greece, no studies exist referring to eighteenth century. This paper examines the household formation patterns on eighteenth century Kythera using nominal census and notarial sources. It demonstrates that Kythera did not belong either to the West or to the East, as these were described by Hajnal; neither did its household formation system conform to Laslett's Mediterranean tendency in quotation marks. The widespread prevalence of nuclear households in Kythera disguised the strong economic links between the paternal household and those of his sons. Thus, the residential independence, as demonstrated in the quantitative analysis of the census, contrasts the economic inter-dependence between the paternal and the son's households, as depicted in the qualitative notarial sources.     

Women between a new marriage and an independent position: Rural widows in Bohemia in the first half of the nineteenth century

This article discusses the position of widowed rural women in early 19th-century Bohemia. It focuses on women who had been married to full peasant farmers, holders of smaller farmsteads or cottagers. The data collected are based on the method of family reconstruction, which made it possible to carry out an in-depth examination of the background of individual widows as well as of the factors which influenced the widows' future. Results show that in deciding whether to remarry, widows were not determined only by economic or demographic circumstances (their age). Rather, the decision depended on specific life experience of each widow. One of the crucial factors was whether a widow was entitled to managing the farmstead of her late husband and also the number and age of children in the family. Young widows under 35 remarried in 88% of the cases, which was only natural since they did not have enough time to fulfil their maternal needs — 62% of women under 35 had either no child or only one when they became widowed. By contrast, the majority of older widows (61% of widows aged 35–50) decided to manage the farm by themselves, since by entering into a new marriage they would compromise the inheritance shares of their existing children.     

Women between a new marriage and an independent position: Rural widows in Bohemia in the first half of the nineteenth century

This article discusses the position of widowed rural women in early 19th-century Bohemia. It focuses on women who had been married to full peasant farmers, holders of smaller farmsteads or cottagers. The data collected are based on the method of family reconstruction, which made it possible to carry out an in-depth examination of the background of individual widows as well as of the factors which influenced the widows' future. Results show that in deciding whether to remarry, widows were not determined only by economic or demographic circumstances (their age). Rather, the decision depended on specific life experience of each widow. One of the crucial factors was whether a widow was entitled to managing the farmstead of her late husband and also the number and age of children in the family. Young widows under 35 remarried in 88% of the cases, which was only natural since they did not have enough time to fulfil their maternal needs — 62% of women under 35 had either no child or only one when they became widowed. By contrast, the majority of older widows (61% of widows aged 35–50) decided to manage the farm by themselves, since by entering into a new marriage they would compromise the inheritance shares of their existing children.     

Church,marriage, and legitimacy in the British West Indies (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)

The British West Indies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries exhibit an extremely high proportion of non-marital unions as well as the highest rates of illegitimacy in the world. A large number of explanations have been proposed, including slavery, the West African heritage, the imbalance between sexes, and the low-wage economy. The present article introduces an additional factor: the degree of control exerted by the Christian churches on conjugal behavior. One consequence of the British West Indian variant of Christianization was a class-specific differentiation in how firmly orthodox forms of European Christianity came to be anchored in the indigenous populations. While the clergy of the Christian churches after 1838 exerted relatively strong control upon the white upper class and the colored and black middle class, their control was weaker over lower classes. This led to a class-specific differentiation in the institutionalization of the Christian European marriage model, which— after 1838—was fully adopted by the upper and middle classes, but only partially among the lower class.     

Old people in Polish cities in the late eighteenth century

The issue of old age as a period in life of a person in the cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was not widely discussed in historic literature of the past. This was due, to a large extent, to the beliefs of the researchers regarding the difficulty in capturing this phenomenon in light of rather Modest statistical sources. This study is, therefore, an attempt to scrutinise the mechanisms behind the functioning of city communities in the territories of central Poland in the late-feudal age on a basic level - the level of the smallest social unit and its economic base, i.e. the household, based on handwritten civil-military censuses from 1791-1792. The author is interested in the living situation of old people, their sizes and gender proportions in cities varying in size: from small to large ones in the second half of the 18th century. The article presents the dependencies between the age and position of men and women in the household and the proportions of old people being heads of households. Using the typology by Peter Laslett a model of a household ran by old people was shown against the background of a general structure of households in cities. The last part of the text concerns the size of households ran by old people, taking into account the social status, and their position within the family. The analysis of the censuses does not allow to determine any clear difference of living through old age in Polish cities in the 18th century in comparison to the regions which are attributed a ’unique’ model of European forms of family. The structural similarity of old age seen in Polish cities is closer to the model observed in cities of western than of eastern Europe.     

English marriages and Scottish divorces in the early nineteenth century

Law printing changed dramatically in the reign of Charles I. This article shows that the legally imposed monopoly on printing books of the common law (the law patent) was breached regularly and seemingly with impunity. Piracy, false attributions of authorship and concerns about quality all appear from the late-1620s onwards. The article explains these changes by stressing a number of factors: changes related to the holder of the patent and those printing under it; difficulties and tensions in the enforcement of the patent; and unauthorized printing creating a more competitive (and therefore challenging) market for law printers.     

The evolution of commitment law in the nineteenth century

The generally accepted interpretation of the evolution of commitment law in the nineteenth century is challenged by means of an historical investigation of the law's development in a single state—Pennsylvania. Rather than an abrupt switch from relaxed commitment procedures to a system of stringent safeguards, which most historical accounts of the period describe, examination reveals that Pennsylvania law underwent a slow accretion of procedural protections, with the essential discretionary role of families, friends, and physicians left undisturbed. The implications for current policy of this challenge to the traditional account are discussed.     

Patronymic names and Noms de terre In the french nobility in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries

Surnames among the French nobility are often composed of patronymic names, titles, and noms de terres (names of lands), joined by the preposition “de.” The aim of this article is, first, to analyze the articulation and devolution processes of these different components, as well as the meaning they could have had in the ancien règime. Second, the article examines what happened after the French Revolution to such names. The example of a court proceeding in the nineteenth century, involving two families and dealing with the usurpation of a nom de terre, leads to questions concerning the relations between law, common use, and the many functions of proper names in contemporary society.     

A reinterpretation of criminal law reform in nineteenth century England

This study challenges the traditional idealistic interpretation that the movement for reforming the criminal law in early nineteenth century England was generated by the enlightened doctrines of Jeremy Bentham. Historical evidence is presented that suggests that even without Bentham a new penal policy would have emerged. Parliament mitigated the severity of the criminal law largely in response to the business community, which demanded more swiftness and certainty in the conviction of property offenders.     

Elderly women in the cities of central europe in the eighteenth century

This study examines the elderly during the age of late feudalism in urban areas of Central Europe. Based on 1791 censuses carried out in six Polish towns (diversified both in size and functions), the author determines the population of older people by gender, marital status, and family position. The article also highlights the economic role of older women in the pre-industrial town. Calculations have been performed using software designed to process mass source data (e.g., censuses or birth, marriage, and death registers).     

Family enterprise in the Baltic estate economy: The nineteenth century

During the nineteenth century, the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire exhibited characteristics of economic change typical of Eastern European rural areas where the landed estate and an enserfed peasantry were dominant forces. Family enterprise, other than agricultural enterprise was rare, even among estate owners. The number of estate “manufactories” remained small throughout the first half of the century, and estate owners discouraged peasant entrepreneurship of any kind. Only in the post-1850 decades, as a consequence of reforms enacted by the Imperial government, did rural economic differentiation become sufficiently pronounced to require notice in various census-type enumerations (1881, 1897). Still, family-based peasant entrepreneurship remained exceptional, and reports about it took anecdotal form.     

Widowers and their sisters-in-law: family crises,horizontally organised relationships and affinal relatives in the nineteenth century

The period around 1800 was characterised by a remarkable intensification of horizontally organised relationships and horizontally structured interactions such as sibling relations and cousin marriages. At the same time, in-laws stepped onto the historical stage. The aim of this contribution is to shed light on the importance of affinal relatives – above all that of deceased wives’ sisters as preferred spouses – and to reconstruct the difficulties that widowers had to cope with in terms of domestic organisation.

As nineteenth-century marriage dispensation records reveal, the number of marriage applications by widowers and their sisters-in-law was particularly high in the German-speaking world. And though research has already been carried out on the broad-based societal and political debate in Great Britain touched off by the “Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill” of 1835, this same constellation within the Catholic context has so far received relatively little attention. Very often, the death of a wife caused the entire household to slide into a situation of crisis, especially if small children were present. In a large number of the cases in which this happened, the wife’s sister ended up moving into the widower’s household. She took care of the household and the children and also took on agricultural and/or business-related responsibilities.

In many cases, it was an obvious next step for widowers and their sisters-in-law to plan their marriage. During the 1830s and 1840s, however, it was very difficult for such bridal couples to obtain the necessary papal dispensation. Therefore, the extensive source material from this period provides revealing insights into the domestic organisation of widowers’ households. It also highlights a close intertwining of social, economic and emotional aspects – for which reason the legally mandated separation of the couple in the case of a rejected dispensation application could become a dramatic matter indeed.     

The use of the family: Property devolution and well-to-do social groups in Catalonia (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries)

The perpetuation through time of social position is one of the aims of individuals, and in order to achieve this they makes use of the economic, social, and political mechanisms at their disposal. The institution of the family constitutes an important aspect of the life of a person and provides instruments (marriage, systems of property devolution, celibacy, etc.) that permit the creation of a strategy by which social reproduction is assured. Nonetheless, in any given society, there exist groups of individuals that gain access to economic resources in similar ways, thus constituting more or less homogeneous social groups. The way in which this is done is conditioned by the way in which they make use of the family and the instruments that are governed by it. This article analyzes the predominant family system in Catalonia (in Northeastern Spain) and its implicit contradictions. It also evaluates the strategies developed by well-to-do social groups to confront these contradictions and facilitate access to resources.