description of females

[Tahiri]

I was recently looking again at a page from Hackington (Kent) Marriage
register in the 1730's and noticed some girls were descibed as 'spinster'
and some as 'maiden' It is the same handwriting all down the page, and as it
happens none of the girls are from Hackington. Are we meant to infer some
difference between them? Is the vicar discreetly casting aspersions on the
morals of the 'spinsters'?

[Jenny M Benson]

Post by Tahiri
I was recently looking again at a page from Hackington (Kent) Marriage
register in the 1730's and noticed some girls were descibed as 'spinster'
and some as 'maiden' It is the same handwriting all down the page, and as it
happens none of the girls are from Hackington. Are we meant to infer some
difference between them? Is the vicar discreetly casting aspersions on the
morals of the 'spinsters'?

Could it relate to a difference in age? One tends to think (even if it
is not quite correct to do so) of "a spinster" as a lady who has passed
the "usual" marrying age without doing so, whereas "a maiden" (to me,
anyway) implies a younger one.

[cecilia]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:04:48 +0100, Jenny M Benson

Post by Tahiri
I was recently looking again at a page from Hackington (Kent) Marriage
register in the 1730's and noticed some girls were descibed as 'spinster'
and some as 'maiden' It is the same handwriting all down the page, and as it
happens none of the girls are from Hackington. Are we meant to infer some
difference between them? Is the vicar discreetly casting aspersions on the
morals of the 'spinsters'?

Could it relate to a difference in age? [...] whereas "a maiden" (to me,
anyway) implies a younger one.

Unless an aunt?

[Tahiri]

Post by Tahiri
I was recently looking again at a page from Hackington (Kent) Marriage
register in the 1730's and noticed some girls were descibed as 'spinster'
and some as 'maiden' It is the same handwriting all down the page, and as it
happens none of the girls are from Hackington. Are we meant to infer some
difference between them? Is the vicar discreetly casting aspersions on the
morals of the 'spinsters'?

Could it relate to a difference in age? One tends to think (even if it is
not quite correct to do so) of "a spinster" as a lady who has passed the
"usual" marrying age without doing so, whereas "a maiden" (to me, anyway)
implies a younger one.

That is a good point. I was following up one of the maidens and she was only
about seventeen or eighteen years old.

[Ian Goddard]

Post by Tahiri
I was recently looking again at a page from Hackington (Kent) Marriage
register in the 1730's and noticed some girls were descibed as 'spinster'
and some as 'maiden' It is the same handwriting all down the page, and as it
happens none of the girls are from Hackington. Are we meant to infer some
difference between them? Is the vicar discreetly casting aspersions on the
morals of the 'spinsters'?

Parsons had a fair amount of control over how they wrote up the
registers and could use a vocabulary which made sense to them. For
instance my family were in an area where one could reasonably expect to
find journeyman weavers but there are none in the registers. I think
they took the attitude that a journeyman was a day labourer and I do
find labourers (as opposed to ag. labs.) who graduated to become
clothiers and who sometimes fell back again to becoming labourers.

But on your latter point I've seen a mother described as "strumpet" -
not particularly discreet but then the mother probably wouldn't have
been able to read it anyway.

[Tahiri]

Parsons had a fair amount of control over how they wrote up the registers
and could use a vocabulary which made sense to them. For instance my
family were in an area where one could reasonably expect to find
journeyman weavers but there are none in the registers. I think they took
the attitude that a journeyman was a day labourer and I do find labourers
(as opposed to ag. labs.) who graduated to become clothiers and who
sometimes fell back again to becoming labourers.
But on your latter point I've seen a mother described as "strumpet" - not
particularly discreet but then the mother probably wouldn't have been able
to read it anyway.

Yes, I have come across clergy with their own ideas about filling in the
register. One I remember from Hulme near Manchester had been filled in
except for the mother's forename. At the bottom of the page was an asterisk
comment 'The mother of the above child is known as Susan but she has not
been baptised.' This was surprisingly late for such an attitude - 1885 or
thereabouts.