the curate's line

                            Elizabeth Willets born 1688 marrying Thomas Garratt 

 Some have this girl’s birth as around 1677 others 1688, Thomas was born in 1675, and they married in 1704. He would have been 29, with Elisabeth 1677 she would have been 27, with 1688, 15 years and 7 months. A reasonable study of social history would have discarded 1688.

 Courtship could be a long drawn out affair, two years or more amongst poorer people.  For the rural lower orders, especially in the first half of the century, a betrothal agreement, following an extended courtship, was an important a sexual and social rite of passage as the church service itself.  Courtship could be long because the male wanted to make sure he’d found the right wife, the selection of a marriage partner was of central importance. But here we have the Curate courting a 13 year old or even younger girl?   
 There were specific social standards in effect during the 18th century, including marriage and courtship, these standards were set and documented in what were known as 'conduct' books, guides for proper behavior. One such book recommends for marriage that "parity of age, status, wealth, reputation and religion, together with personal attraction, made the perfect match". The existence of such books tells of the restraints and order of the period; evidence that the people of the 18th century were concerned with what was right and wrong. Would this couple's courtship have looked correct?

 By today’s standards couples married late, this was culturally driven, teenage marriages were uncommon. Early in the century, tradesmen wed in their mid or even late twenties; professional men often married in their thirties, their brides a little younger. Money was a factor, marriage was an expensive business largely governed by economic circumstances, ordinary folk postponed marriage until starting a family became prudent, or when the courting couple could set up house on their own. Living with one's parents was not considered. Co-operative and assurance societies were formed at this time with the object of providing money to their subscribers for the expenses of matrimony. Thomas's living at the time was only £30 per year, what would a 15 year old girl have contributed?

 So the average age of marriage was relatively late. In the first two decades of the 18th century for women it was 26.9, men on average were a year older, this was dubbed the 'European Marriage Pattern'. Two of his own sisters were 26 and 30 when they married.

  The  degree of parental control could vary, parents approval was sought even by couples over the age of twenty one, but not insisted upon, choice was left to the individual, termed in it's day as the new phenomenon of 'affective individualism'. But kin, friends and communities all expected to have a certain say over the private lives of individuals, people usually  adhered to the social norm. Even when she married a woman only switched superiors from father to husband, her status changed from feme sole to feme covert, this placed her in the same legal category as wards, lunatics and idiots.

  With no legal age for marriage, anyone under the age of 21 had to have written parental permission. In this case the Rev Walker, Vicar of Clent, would have received it, and most likely performed the service. Unusually for someone so young neither the parish registers nor Bishop's transcripts give any mention of written parental consent, nor is there any mention in any local history of a curate marrying one of his 15 year old parishioners, an event which must go down in local history as worthy of some note.

  It was Walker who gave the Curate the living in the first place, what would have been his thoughts on his Curate marrying a 15 year old girl and how this would have reflected on him. 

 Thomas Garratt was an educated man, he’d spent several years at Pembroke College Oxford, obtaining a BA, would a 13 -15 year old girl have been educated sufficiently or mature enough to have risen to Thomas’s intellectual level? As a proverb of the day said, marriage was more than 'four bare legs in a bed'.

 Would a girl in those times want a 13 to 14 year age gap in her marriage, she could have been widowed young with children to look after, given the high mortality rate of the period.

 Their first child was born when Elizabeth 1677 would have been aged 28, and Elizabeth 1688  aged 17, with their last child the first Elizabeth would have been 41 and the second 30. It would have been less likely that Elizabeth 1677 would have had more children past the age of 42 considering the length of time mothers breast fed their babies in this period and the fertility of a women of this age, but Elizabeth 1688 had plenty more child bearing years left, yet they had no more children.

A marriage to Elizabeth born 1688 would have been entered in the registers as 'licensed',
an objective look at this marriage would have discarded this Elizabeth.  

In 1694-96 a stamp duty was imposed on every licence and certificate issued, at a rate of five shillings. The licence itself was considerably more expensive if it required a sworn statement from parties under the age of twenty one that they had the consent of their parents.

References and Reading:

Olsen, Kirsten, 1999, Daily Life in the 18th Century, The Greenwood Press

Prest, Wilfred, 1998, Albion Ascendant, English History 1660-1815.   Oxford University Press.

Hibbert, Christopher, 1988, The English a Social History, 1066-1945.  Harper Collins.

Hoppit, Julian, 2000, A Land of Liberty? England 1689-1729. Oxford University Press.

Porter, Prof Roy, 1982, English Society in the 18th Century. Penguin Books. London

Maureen Waler, Hodderand Stoughton, 2000, 1700. Scenes From London Life.  London

Picard, Liz, 1997, Restoration London.  Wiedenfeld and Nicolson.

Yalom, Marilyn, 2001, The History of the Wife.  Harper Collins,

Vickery, Amanda, 2010, Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England. Yale University Press. London