Attitudes towards Male Authority and Domestic Violence in Eighteenth-Century London Courts

This chapter discusses eighteenth-century cases of domestic violence in London, with a view to exploring how witnesses linked wife-beating with ideas about masculinity and, more specifically, masculine authority. It does not attempt to present a quantitative analysis of the extent of wife-beating in the metropolis, but rather uses courtroom testimonies and newspaper commentaries as qualitative sources that reflect contemporary views and attitudes about marital relations and household governance. Early modern models of patriarchal household governance conceived of the relationships between household members as a hierarchical power grid. Thus the period in particular saw a transition from earlier models of masculinity that legitimized the use of physical force to compel obedience and defend male honour as part of a system of patriarchal household governance, to a model of masculinity that privileged civility and self-control and marginalized violence.