Asa
21-04-13, 07:31
Has anyone else come across this sort of thing in newspapers?
I have two in my family - completely different sides - one in the early C20th which I won't go into detail about and another I've just found in 1830 in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire.
The latter case is brought by the father,a timber dealer to claim damages against his neighbour the butcher for seducing his elder daughter, a 20 year old, who did a bit of temporary housekeeping for him - I think it is persuasion rather than force. The newspaper reports are fascinating and give such a vivid image. Poor Mary Ann was made pregnant with promises of marriage in a coppice on the way to visiting her great aunt. In court, there was much discussion of her character with friends of the butcher describing her as loose and friends of her father's, plus the Vicar, defending her morals.
The timber dealer won 350 quid for Mary Ann's seduction and presumably the upkeep of the child but I do wonder how the poor girl felt being reported in newspapers as "a female of no great personal charms" from London to Newcastle.
I have two in my family - completely different sides - one in the early C20th which I won't go into detail about and another I've just found in 1830 in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire.
The latter case is brought by the father,a timber dealer to claim damages against his neighbour the butcher for seducing his elder daughter, a 20 year old, who did a bit of temporary housekeeping for him - I think it is persuasion rather than force. The newspaper reports are fascinating and give such a vivid image. Poor Mary Ann was made pregnant with promises of marriage in a coppice on the way to visiting her great aunt. In court, there was much discussion of her character with friends of the butcher describing her as loose and friends of her father's, plus the Vicar, defending her morals.
The timber dealer won 350 quid for Mary Ann's seduction and presumably the upkeep of the child but I do wonder how the poor girl felt being reported in newspapers as "a female of no great personal charms" from London to Newcastle.