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Timestamp: 2019-04-24 06:21:05+00:00

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This chapter presents a case study on courtship from provincial England, focusing on the court case Ryder v. Jones which appeared in court in 1661. The case was filed by George Ryder, a successful young attorney, against Priscilla Jones. He claimed that they had a verbal marriage contract and asked the court to sequester Priscilla from her parents. The court granted Ryder's request and his legal harassment backfired for it annoyed Priscilla who found herself in the position of a defendant accused of reneging a formal contract.
This chapter presents a case study on forced marriage by a seducer or suitor, focusing on the court case Houghton v. Cash which was filed in 1703. The case involved James Cash who allegedly seduced his domestic servant Ellen, made her pregnant, and asked her to attribute the paternity of her child to bachelor blacksmith Thomas Houghton. The court ruled in favour of Houghton having proved that the ascription of paternity to him was the result of an ingenious seduction plot planned by Cash and carried out by Ellen.
This chapter presents a case study on valid clandestine marriage in England, focusing on the court case Elmes v. Elmes which was filed in 1706. The case involved poor widower Henry Elmes who took the twenty-year-old Mary Wise as his mistress in 1706 and claimed that they were married in May 1706. He said that they were married within the Rules of the Queen's Bench Prison in Southwark. However, in 1708, Elmes claimed that he was never married to Mary and later married a certain Anne Ordway. The secular and ecclesiastical courts had different positions on which marriage the was valid.
This chapter presents a case study on valid clandestine marriage in England, focusing on the court case Beaumont v. Hurnard which was filed in 1712. The case centres on the marriage of Joseph Beaumont to Catherine May. Despite their families' objections, Joseph and Catherine May were married in a clandestine wedding in 1709. After Joseph's death, Catherine married Philip Waldegrave, and later Robert Hurnard. Hurnard filed a suit to recover Catherine's dowery from Joseph's estate. The Beaumonts filed a counter suit in an ecclesiastical court to declare Joseph's marriage to Catherine invalid.
This chapter presents a case study on valid clandestine marriage in England, focusing on the court case Rudd v. Rudd which was filed in 1720. This can involved the sixteen-year-old baronet Sir John Rudd and young servant called Lettice Vaughan. Rudd secretly married Vaughan in her room. By January 1721, the news of the marriage seeped out and Rudd was sent by his family to Holland for his education. When Rudd came of age, his family mounted a deliberate campaign of deception to lure Lettice into a second, bigamous marriage in order to dissolve her first marriage. Lettice then married John Blackman. She later learned that Rudd was still alive when he filed a suit for separation on grounds on her adultery with Blackman.
This chapter presents a case study on valid clandestine marriage in England, focusing on the court case Phillips v. Cresse which was filed in 1738. The cased involved the twenty-year-old wine-cooper apprentice Thomas Phillips and eighteen-year-old Eleanor Cresse who were married secretly by a Fleet parson in 1738. Eleanor gave birth in July 1743 without Thomas present. The Cresses then filed a lawsuit seeking support from Thomas, which they won. In February 1744 Thomas filed a counter suit seeking jactitation of marriage, an order forbidding Eleanor from claiming marriage, which he also won.
What this story brings out so vividly is the intense concern by family friends and legal advisers to avoid the shame and disgrace of airing domestic grievances in open court. On the other hand, such was the obstinacy of Henry Otway that the two critical issues upon which the resolution of the separation negotiations depended were unable to be resolved. These two were, first, a substantial maintenance allowance for Sarah, bearing in mind that the bulk of the fortune of Henry Otway had come from her; and, secondly, some compromise over the custody of the children. Sarah insisted on having full custody of the three girls, with arrangements for visits to their father, conceding to her husband custody of the three boys, but demanding visiting rights to them.
This chapter lays out the aim of this book: reconstructing the lives of ordinary early modern London women from their own points of view, as individuals who moved from household to household across the life cycle. It suggests that women actively pursued advancement via the means available to them, which included migration to London, where the marriage market was favorable to women. While women's lives were shaped by strong and widespread social anxieties about their gender, these sexual anxieties were sometimes countered by even stronger worries about economic stability; these competing priorities could open up moments of opportunity for women. This chapter also discusses the main archival sources for the book: the deposition books of the London consistory court, which include the depositions of roughly 2,500 women for the period 1570–1640.

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