Nuptiality and Age At Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England

Abstract

This paper presents a reworking and extension of Anderson's (1976) analysis of Victorian marriage patterns. It utilises registration district data for England and Wales in 1861 and 1891 together with information on individuals drawn from the census enumerators' books for six case study districts, 1851-1881. The main focus of the analysis is on the role of occupational charac teristics, especially those of women, and the ways such characteristics condition the resultant level of nuptiality via age at first marriage and the proportion ever married. The need to supplement ecological multivariate analysis by the use of a 'collective biography' approach is emphasized and illustrated.