(April) 2011 - Irish Genealogical Website International

___________________________________________________________________ Book Review Essay
Irish Ancestral Marriage and a 1701 Dillon Divorce
by Harold E. Hinds, Jr.
In The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic
Marriage in Ireland 1740-1840,
2nd edition (Belfast: Ulster Historical
Foundation, 2006), author A.P.W.
Malcomson concludes that earlier historical
studies had been in error when they stated
that aristocratic Irish men often sought to
marry an heiress,that is,“a bride who brought
with her assets which far outweighed any
return that her husband’s family was obliged
to make” (p. 242). On the contrary, the
evidencesupportstheconclusionthatsuitors
correctly discerned that “marriage held out
small hope of dynastic aggrandizement,
[and thus] a ‘marriage of affection’ was a
more sensible aim” (p. 246). Rather than
engaging in speculation and building castles
in the air, they made the sensible choice of
marrying“the averagely portioned daughters
of other Irish aristocratic families” (p. 244).
Their choices of marriage partners “were,
after all, an obvious choice – their cousins,
their childhood sweethearts, the daughters
of their parents’ friends, and the girls whom
they met at‘routs’ and‘assemblies’ during the
Dublin season” (p. 244).
The author reaches these conclusions
via a series of densely argued chapters,
with numerous examples and extensive
documentation. Chapter one, “Law,
Terminology and the Nature of the
Evidence” introduces the key term and
principle piece of evidence: the “marriage
settlement.” The settlement was a legal
document drawn up by attorneys who
represented the prospective bride and
groom respectively, which explicitly stated
the assets each brought to the marriage and
the obligations each assumed. For example,
under this contract a bride-to-be’s family
supplied a “portion,” a non-returnable sum
paid to the groom; and if the bride became
a widow, she would receive a “jointure,” or
widow’s annuity.
However, a marriage settlement did not
guarantee that a wealthy bride-to-be would
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actually become an heiress. Her predecessor
in title might squander the estate. Also, “in
the eyes of the law, nobody was an heiress
until everyone who stood between the
inheritance and her was dead, and dead
childless” (p. 5). So, in order to more fully
reconstruct the genealogical and financial
history of aristocratic families, the author
supplements marriage settlements with
correspondence, wills and testamentary
papers, legal cases, rentals, accounts, family
histories, and heraldry records.
In chapter two, Malcomson argues that
in order to reach a satisfactory marriage
settlement, a variety of considerations,
both financial and non-financial, had to be
considered. Driving a hard bargain might
undermine the desired goal of a union, or
poison marital and familial relations from
the outset, and therefore in most cases
was avoided. Other constraints the author
stressed included the following: the portion
“had already been determined by prior
considerations: the provision made in the
marriage settlement of her parents, their
rank, the number and sex of her siblings,
and so on” (p. 27); social custom mitigated
against marriages of high-ranking males
and low-status, but wealthy, females; and,
customarily, all marriageable daughters
were provided with the same portions. No
amount of prior planning could guarantee
whether or not a settlement would work or
would impose hardship, since that depended
on “the number and, to a lesser extent, the
sex of the younger children” (p. 31).
Yet another mitigating factor, the subject of
chapter three, was “the superior bargaining
power of the heiress.” If in fact the
prospective bride brought with her assets
which far outweighed any return the future
husband was obliged to make, then there
existed numerous legal means to protect
the bride’s assets. Her money and almost
always her land were legally put beyond the
husband’s control.
Her land, in particular (as chapter four,
“CollateralDamage:TheLureof theYounger
Son,” points out), could subvert a husband’s
hope that her assets would raise his status.
The mystique attached to land, together
with a landed heiress’s desire to continue
her surname and line, could motivate her to
practice what was called cadet inheritance,
particularly if the marriage produced several
sons. That is, a younger son – the husband’s
family estate presumably being inherited by
the eldest son – would inherit her lands, if
he agreed to assume his mother’s maiden
name. In short, the heiress ceased to be an
acquisition, since her land, and often her
money as well, passed to one of her younger
sons, and thus out of the husband’s family
line.
Did the period 1740-1840 witness an
increase in affective or companionate
marriage, as some eminent historians have
argued? If so, then there would be scant
basis for the securing of wealth and status
via a strategic marriage. Malcomson, after
a protracted discussion of marriage of
affection in chapter five, concludes that the
evidence for the rise of affective marriage is
mixed at best. He acknowledges that “there
can be no doubt that the purpose of the strict
settlement was to pre-empt sentiment” (p.
123). Nevertheless, most Irish aristocratic
marriages struck “a nice balance between
calculation and affectiveness, love and lucre”
(p. 127). And so the author concludes that
the evidence is inconclusive.
Chapter six tackles the sensational element
in aristocratic marriage. Malcomson
surveys marriages based on elopement and
abduction; “mésalliances,” or marriages
where “one partner greatly outranked the
other in wealth and status” (p. 166); and
marriages where the partners were otherwise
mismatched or “ill-circumstanced” (p. 174)
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