Living in sin : cohabiting as husband and wife in nineteenth-century England / Ginger S. Frost.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frost, Ginger Suzanne, 1962- author.

Series:

Gender in history.

Gender in history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unmarried couples--England--History--19th century.

Unmarried couples.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 264 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

Online-ausg.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a book-length study of cohabitation in nineteenth-century England, based on research into the lives of hundreds of couples. 'Common-law' marriages did not have any legal basis, so the Victorian courts had to wrestle with unions that resembled marriage in every way, yet did not meet its most basic requirements. The majority of those who lived in irregular unions did so because they could not marry legally. Others, though, chose not to marry, from indifference, from class differences, or because they dissented from marriage for philosophical reasons. This book looks at each motivation in turn, highlighting class, gender and generational differences, as well as the reactions of wider kin and community. It shows how these couples slowly widened the definition of legal marriage, preparing the way for the more substantial changes of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Cohabitation, illegitimacy, and the law in England, 1750-1914

Violence and cohabitation in the courts

Affinity and consanguinity

Bigamy and cohabitation

Adulterous cohabitation

The 'other Victorians' : the demimonde and the very poor

Cross-class cohabitation

Radical couples, 1790-1850

Radical couples, 1850-1914.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 May 2026).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-254) and index.

ISBN:

1-78170-072-9

1-84779-141-7

OCLC:

818847359