ABSTRACT
The family and marriage were central to contemporary British social, political, and cultural concerns between 1700 and 1850. Numerous commentators identified both units as vital for the maintenance of social order and the promotion of national prosperity and expansion, especially during a period characterized by extensive warfare and imperial growth. Although the law on marriage was codified by the end of our period, understandings of family and marriage continued to differ. Recent historians of women and gender have focused on how the meanings of marriage and the family were transformed. In order to move beyond the primary conceptualization of women as wives and mothers, they have concentrated on detailing the ways that ideas about, and the experience of, courtship, sex, marriage, and motherhood changed over time.1 By outlining the major changes that occurred to family and marital life over the period, and the effects of these historical processes on women’s lives, this chapter will emphasize the diversity of the experience of marital and familial relationships for women of different social status, geographical location, age, and gender between 1700 and 1850.2 In particular, it will shine a spotlight on the familial experiences of poor women who have remained beyond the gaze of most observers.
