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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2002-05 > 1020793091


From: "p-pgriffiths" <>
Subject: Re: Moral Standards in 1870's Rural Essex
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 18:38:11 +0100
References: <MABBJONGEFKONCIFBLFFCEIHCMAA.stivo@mod-man.fsnet.co.uk>


Dear Steve

This is fascinating stuff. Thank you.

I don't understand why you are critical of your ancestor at all. It is
impossible to know, at this distance, her own wishes and behaviour and the
pressures upon her, though it's easy to imagine the reaction of the
narrow-minded and prissy. Why should she, her sisters, or anyone else, be
blamed for having sex or children?

Your girlfriend is confusing what the middle classes did (or claimed to do!)
with how the aristocracy, who've always gone their own way, and working
people behaved. It's all too commonly suggested that everyone behaved like
the middle sectors. Maybe people read too much Jane Austen and 'polite'
Victorian novelists and don't dig deep enough into the lives of the working
class. A look at the numbers of women pregnant on being married would show
that there was plenty of extra-marital sexual activity in town and country.

Good luck to all, then and now,

Peter G.
London, England


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Reeve" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 11:50 AM
Subject: Moral Standards in 1870's Rural Essex



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