Love and courtship in eighteenth-century Scotland

Abstract

The history of love, especially within courtship, is a topic of considerable discussion. For early historians of the European family, like Lawrence Stone and Edward Shorter, the ability to select a partner for love, rather than for economic, political or dynastic reasons, marked a major sea-change in human relationships in the eighteenth century. It was evidence of the move to modernity, where traditional institutions such as the patriarchal family were swept away in favour of individuality and choice.2 Subsequently, historians have revised this picture of dramatic change in favour of emphasizing the continuities, where love has always competed alongside economic factors and parental controls in choosing a partner, and has been central to marriage, even in hierarchical family structures.3 Moreover, the idea that this was a ‘competition’ has been revised, with greater emphasis being placed on individuals recognizing that their own self-interest lay in making economically or politically astute choices (or not), and, conversely, on the ways that tight social networks promoted endogamous marriage, even if individuals believed they were marrying ‘for love’. Nor has this been a discussion confined to a particular social group. There is considerable debate about whether the lower orders, less reliant on inherited income, had more freedom to ignore parental wishes than their elite counterparts, or whether economic insecurity, as well as the importance of familial networks to create employment opportunities, ensured similar constraints. At the same time, it has been recognized that meanings of ‘love’ were undergoing considerable debate during the eighteenth century. Love, romance, sex before marriage, and the appropriate emotions within courtship and marriage were discussed at length in popular culture, particularly in the flourishing genre of novels, affecting how people felt about each other and expressed such feelings.