Regency Trivia! Correspondence

Letter writing occupied a large amount of time for both ladies and gentlemen. The goal was to be able to write a letter as if you were speaking to the person. It must also be interesting for the receiver to read. Naturally, letters tended to be long. Unless one was a peer, or had one handy, letters was expensive to receive as the recipient paid for said letter. In order to keep the costs down, letters were frequently crossed. Below is an example of a crossed letter.

 

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Regency Trivia – Divorce

When last we left this subject the prospect of divorce seemed pretty dismal. But there was an alternative. Like marriage, divorce in Scotland was much easier, as long as the conditions were met and women could sue for divorce on the basis of adultery. In order to apply for a divorce in Scotland the adultery had to occur in Scotland, and the guilty party had to have lived there for six weeks. Naturally, this was much easier to accomplish if the husband agreed to the divorce.

 

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Regency Trivia – Dissolving a Marriage

In Regency England, a divorce or annulment were extremely difficult for either party to get, but especially women. Peers and peeresses had to apply to the House of Lords for a divorce. Commoners filed in court. Until 1857, peers, peeresses, and commoners, required a private bill to be passed by the Lords in order for one to be able to remarry. The process was complicated and also involved the Ecclesiastical Court. Divorce was also scandalous. Gentlemen could survive socially, but ladies rarely did.

For men, the grounds for divorce were usually adultery, including a case for criminal conversion brought against the wife’s lover. Evidence had to be given in the form of eye-witness testimony or testimony by the wife’s lover.

Women could not divorce a husband based on adultery. The only grounds for divorce was physical abuse. Sometime even grievous abuse was not enough. It was much easier for a woman to obtain a separation with maintenance. The other issue with a woman leaving her husband was any children. Men had the right to the children, and unless the children were at risk, a woman frequently had to leave her children behind. Some mothers never saw their children again.

Annulment: Marriages could be annulled based on the consanguinity, the closeness of the relationship between the parties. For example, during the Regency it was not allowed for a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister (it did happen, but not among the aristocracy because it could be challenged), failure to be able to have marital relations, underage marriage performed by a license, and mental unfitness. There are two notable cases involving failure to be able to perform sexual congress (remember consummation of the marriage was not necessary in England). The first is a woman whose hymen was so thick it would require a surgical procedure to enable to her engage in marital relations and she refused to have the procedure. The second case was a gentleman who could not preform. After the annulment, he went on to remarry and had several children. One of the lords remarked that they ought not to have given him the annulment, whereupon another said that just because he couldn’t preform with one woman didn’t mean another might not have success.

This was a quick overview. If you’re interested in more information I recommend the following post by Nancy Myer. http://www.regencyresearcher.com/pages/marriagedis.html

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Regency Trivia – Dissolving a Betrothal

During the Regency once a gentleman asked for a lady’s hand and she accepted, he was stuck. There was no way he could honorably jilt her without ruining her reputation. Why? Because if he broke the engagement, it was presumed that she was not of good character.

The lady, however, could break a betrothal for any number of reasons without ruining either of their reputations. The main reason used was that she discovered they would not suit. The only time jilting a gentleman could cause a scandal is if it happened very close to the wedding date. Still, that wouldn’t last long.

There have been some very funny scenes in books that revolve around gentlemen attempting to convince a lady to break a betrothal. Two that come immediately to mind are The Grand Sophy and The Bath Tangle, both by the great Georgette Heyer.

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Regency Trivia – Hired Transport

The Royal Mail Coach

The Mail was probably the fastest way to travel the long routes between London and other major cities such as York and Edinburgh.

Beginning in 1789, the mail coach was built to a design approved by the Post Office and originally operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail. By the Regency, the Post Office had their own vehicles. The coach had a place in the back for an armed guard. There was room for only four passengers inside the coach. No one was allowed to share the coachman’s seat, although, passengers could sit on top. This, however, could be hazardous to one’s health. There is at least one account of a passenger arriving frozen to death. Passengers were taken at a premium fare, costing between 2-5 pence a mile. The coaches averaged 7 to 8 miles per hour in summer and about 5 miles per hour in winter. By 1840, the roads had improved so much that speeds of 10 miles per hour were common.

Travel on the mail coach was always at night when there was much less traffic on the roads. The coaches kept a strict schedule, and except for quick changes of horses, it stopped only for the collection and delivery of the mail. Crack post boys prided themselves on how fast they could change the teams. When you hear about passengers being forced to drink scalding hot tea or not being able to finish a meal, it is when they were traveling on a mail coach. By the 1820’s, after many of the major roads had been improved, the mail coach could make the run from London to Edinburgh in twenty-seven hours, much faster than by private coach or stage coach.

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