A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    82/700 (page 52)
    In contradiction to these pictures of English love and marriage stands the remarkable fact that marriage by purchase and usages linked with it dishonouring to woman have persisted in England from ancient times right up to the last century. Nowhere has marriage by purchase assumed such repulsive forms as in England. The origin of this barbarous custom goes right back to the Anglo-Saxon era1. Jeaffreson gives a plausible explanation of the origin of English marriage by purchase. According to him, the English father brought up his daughters in the patriarchal period to very discreet ideas, so that on reaching marriage- able age they were unused to expensive ways; enriched him rather by their work. They not only did his cooking, but made his clothes and helped on the farm. So it came about that the more daughters a man had, the richer he was held to be. They were a direct source of gain for him. For this reason marriage by purchase was introduced neither in the interests of women nor in the interests of intending bridegrooms, but solely in those of the father with marriage- able daughters2. The custom was made possible by the lowly status of woman. According to Anglo-Saxon laws she was always obliged to live under the lordship of a man who was called her 6 mundbora 5 or protector. The father was naturally the protector of the unmarried daughter. On his death the brother took the father's place. After him came the next of male kin, and in the absence of male kin, the King. The girl's value was decided by her rank, and the law fixed the price which had to be paid for her3. A widow was worth only half as much as a 1 According to some, marriage by purchase is thought to have prevailed among the ancient Britons. Cf. London As It is. Leipzig, 1826. P. 85. 2 J. C. Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals. Second edition. London, 1873. Vol. I, pp. 33-35. 3 F. Somner Merryweather, Glimmerings in the Dark; or Shadows of the Olden Times. London, 1850. P. 190. [52]