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Defining Rank in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland

Bibliographic Data

ID9080690
AuthorsLeah Leneman (University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume33
Issue3
Pages665-682
Publication date2000-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/jsh.2000.0028
OpenAlexW2038503839
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited5

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, when entry into the professions was still fluid, and 'rank' rather than 'class' characterised social relationships, status depended on finely graded nuances. A unique source that reveals the minutiae of perceived differences in rank and status---and moreover on a gendered basis---is the record of Declarator of Marriage cases heard before Edinburgh Commissary Court. Scottish law continued to recognise (as 'irregular' but legal) marriages constituted by a promise of marriage followed by intercourse between the parties. If the man denied the promise the woman could sue him in court and, if unable to prove a marriage, still had the possibility of being awarded damages for seduction. In such cases it was in the interests of the man's lawyer to prove that the woman could not have expected marriage when she had sex with him since she was of a lower rank, while the woman's lawyer naturally disputed this. From these cases specific strands emerge: upward and downward mobility of fathers, occupations of the women themselves, and a surprisingly great stress on the woman's education

Combinatorics · Library science · Media studies · Rank (graph theory) · Sociology · Classics · Computer Science · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Mathematics · Scottish History and National Identity

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