Selling Your Spouse and Window Into Life in Georgian England
The 18th century in England is remembered for an unprecedented flourishing of science and art. However, the everyday life of the people of that era was very different from that of modern Britons. What did the English of the 18th century eat, how did they heal and where did they study?
Medicine
Imagine it's 1715, you were born into a small Yorkshire farmer's family. Your mother was delivered by a midwife, a specially trained woman who helped babies into the world. You were very lucky, your mother's midwife was experienced, knowledgeable about herbs and not negligent about hygiene, unlike many of her colleagues. Not a bad start, given that most babies of the time were not so fortunate. Infant mortality was still high in the 18th century, with around 20% of babies dying before their first birthday.
Noble and wealthy Englishwomen also used midwives, but in the 18th century aristocratic, women introduced a new fashion -- to go to a male doctor.
The doctors were educated at universities, and were officially allowed to use medical instruments, such as obstetric forceps.
A real war broke out between midwives and doctors -- the former were accused of lack of education and the latter of using medical instruments instead of hands. But the lack of a basic understanding of hygiene on the part of both doctors and midwives made childbirth equally dangerous for all women, regardless of class.
The customs of the time insisted that in the presence of male doctors, patients should hide their bodies under sheets even when giving birth. The doctors therefore did their work literally by touch.
Medicine in the 1700s might seem a little strange and even frightening to modern people. Two hundred years before the discovery of penicillin, doctors were treating people with bloodletting, decoctions, and powders.
For example, the Reverend William Twigge offers this recipe for a cure for infantile jaundice in his notes dating back to 1715: "Cut the rhubarb into four thin slices. Put half an ounce of crushed currants and 40 crushed cinnamon grains in them. Gently simmer in a quarter pint of water. Strain, squeezing vigorously. Give your child a spoonful of this remedy every other morning, and on days when you do not, give him a spoonful or two of dandelion juice with a third of a spoonful of honey and 3-4 spoons of mild beer first in the morning and then at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon."
At the same time, the development of science in the 18th century laid the foundations for the greatest medical discoveries. In 1798, a British doctor, Edward Jenner, developed a way to vaccinate against smallpox, a dangerous disease that had terrorized humanity for centuries.
In the 18th century, new hospitals were built all over England, not only to care for the sick, but also to train new doctors.
Education
Society in Georgian England was still deeply religious. Whether you were born in a stinky London alleyway or in the chambers of a marquis, everyone expected you to be obedient, hard-working, and industrious.
Flogging was the number one method for most teachers at the time, and a dreadful nightmare for many children.
Education for the poor was not considered compulsory, although they could attend Charity Schools if they wished. Such establishments were opened throughout England, funded by philanthropists, and designed to prepare orphans and children from low-income families for future working life. At Charity Schools, pupils were taught basic arithmetic, penmanship, and reading from the Bible, as well as useful skills such as sewing, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.
Teaching in the Charity Schools was harsh, and teachers were strict and cruel. Children from low-income families were taught on the principle of "Don't jump over your head." Latin or geography were considered unnecessary for the son of a carpenter or a fisherman, while the classical sciences were a privilege for the upper classes.
The little rich and aristocrats studied geography, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history, logic and mathematics. They were introduced to the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and other thinkers, and Greek and Latin played an important role in preparing them for university.
Boys could study with a tutor at home, or attend a local school. Most aristocratic children, however, were educated in boarding schools.
This was considered very prestigious: it allowed a boy to become more independent and self-reliant.
However, it is unlikely that children today would want to attend such schools. It was not uncommon for teachers to whip their pupils for any kind of misconduct. Teachers and parents believed that this was the way to make a man out of a boy.
After school, young men would go to university, such as Oxford or Cambridge. The universities of that time were a cog in the system of class and gender construction, and studying there was more social experience and networking than education. In addition to the classical sciences, we are already familiar with, students attended classes in fencing, music, and dance.
With women's education, things were contradictory. On the one hand, in the 18th century, a girl was expected to be a good housewife, wife, and mother. On the other hand, it was the age of the Enlightenment, and women (mostly from the upper class) were gaining independence and could assert themselves. They were still not allowed to go to university, but they could hold intellectual conversations on an equal footing with men.
At this time, various women's movements emerged, such as the Blue Stocking Society, an informal association of women interested in education.
The members of this society (where educated men were also invited) met in British social reformer Elizabeth Montague's salon to discuss literature or art over a cup of tea. The Blue Stocking Society included English writers and poets Elizabeth Carter, Esther Chapon, and Hannah More.
Entertainment
Every night thousands piled into London's Drury Lane, Haymarket, and Covent Garden theaters to watch actors and acrobats. The noble and wealthy audience were seated in boxes, while the more modest crowd piled into the stuffy galleries.
The theater was very different from what we are used to seeing today. There was noise in the hall, and the audience drank and ate during the performance, and could even throw a rotten tomato at a hapless actor.
The English also loved exotic animal shows, fairs and the so-called pleasure gardens. Admission cost just one shilling, so even the poorest could splurge to stroll the alleys and enjoy the fountains and musical concerts.
What united people of all classes was a love of gambling. Gambling permeated all social strata of British society. While the aristocrats spent their evenings gambling in their luxurious salons or gentlemen's clubs, the working class and the poor flocked to the city pubs, where it was not a pint of cold beer that lured them.
Deadly cockfights, duck-baiting, and brutal boxing fights are just a small part of the bloody "games" during which the public could place bets. Unfortunately, 18th-century gamblers were not treated to the top live casinos and games available today. However, gambling remained one of the most popular pastimes.
The Age of Enlightenment gave the world not only Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Anthony Shaftesbury, but also brand-new entertainment. How about a tour of a hospital for the mentally ill? In the 18th century, London's Bethlehem and Bedlam hospitals were particularly popular and attracted crowds of gawkers eager to observe inmates with mental illnesses. The hospitals even organized open days, more akin to freak shows -- giants, dwarfs and people with various genetic diseases were exhibited for the entertainment of the public.
Food
Paradoxically, the poor and peasants ate better than the rich! The fact is that the wealthy spoiled themselves with fish, meat, desserts, chocolate, baked goods, sugar, and very few vegetables. Such a diet was not a balanced one. The upper classes often suffered from gout, the "rich man's disease", which was caused by a heavy diet and alcohol.
Less well-off Britons mostly ate meat (not in such large quantities), fish, butter, beans, vegetables, and fruit. What might a simple artisan family's dinner look like? For example, it could be a stew, dried or fresh vegetables, and dough flatbread. For an extra fee, the dishes could be flavored with spices or sugar. From the British colonies of the New World, India, and Africa, spices, tomatoes, potatoes, yams and corn found their way onto British tables.
Many foods contained healthful substances and vitamins. These foods improved health and increased life expectancy.
Family and marriage
In 1967, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote their famous song "All You Need is Love'." If The Beatles had lived in the 18th century, this hit might well have become an anthem of sentimentalism.
Sentimentalism emerged in Georgian England among the middle class. Its popularity was also linked to a decline in religiosity, the growth of the economy and civic activism. By the 1770s, society was increasingly concerned with social problems and the protection of the weak and excluded. In England, movements condemning slavery and child labor were founded.
Sentimentalism placed feelings at the center of the corner. Sentimental stories of a wealthy man marrying a poor peasant woman or a noble lady eloping with a simple townsman appeared more and more often in literature and art. The sentimental hero resisted cruelty and injustice and was always guided by his feelings.
Many young people stopped seeing marriage as a union between two wealthy families. Ideas about a happy marriage out of love were coming to the fore.
In 1753, Parliament passed the Marriage Act. Until the middle of the 18th century, there was a de facto marriage in England; a man and a woman could cohabit, raise children, and share a household without having to register their relationship legally.
Under the new law, those wishing to marry were now required to register formally and sign a contract. Those under the age of 21 had to obtain parental consent. Marriage was henceforth regulated by civil law, not by the church.
This was to combat secret and early marriages (the age of consent was 12 for girls and 14 for boys). But to get around the law, lovers would run off to Scotland and marry there.
The new law also made the divorce process much more difficult. It was very expensive to dissolve a marriage and permission for divorce had to be obtained from Parliament. Only very rich people could afford it. In addition, most marriages were not allowed to be renewed by Parliament.
The poor had a rather original way out of the situation - they would sell their bored spouse at a fair for a token sum or a bottle of rum. The whole process rather resembled an auction -- the husband would bring his wife with a rope tied around her neck, waist or arm, then tell her of her merits and then announce the auction. Sometimes the buyer was known in advance by agreement, or it could be the wife's secret lover.
The tradition of selling one's wives seems completely wild, but it was the way that made divorce more or less legitimate for the poorer classes of society.
There were, at times, benefits to the women -- young and attractive girls might be "bought out" by wealthier and more noble men. After the purchase, the previous marriage was invalidated, and the first spouse gave up all claims to the wife's property -- (yes, yes, according to the 1753 law, all a woman's property and savings belonged to her husband).
In Scotland and Ireland, this custom did not take root. Every time a man tried to get rid of his hated wife at the fair, it provoked the anger of the local women and escalated into a fierce beating of the husband.
So, while some dreamed of eternal love, others looked for someone to sell their annoying wife to.
The 18th century was a controversial time, but it was the era that laid the foundation for many scientific discoveries, laws and more in the 19th century.
