HUMBLE HISTORY
Telling the stories of ordinary people in the past
Contents
Foreword by Philip Payton
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1
Considerable Numbers? - Taking a count of the wives
2
Money from Abroad - Remittances and home-pay
3
Making Ends Meet - Work and credit
4
‘If You Can Accord’ - Support from family and community
5
Deserted, Desperate & Destitute? - The wives and the Poor Law
6
‘Unworthy’ Wives and ‘Forgetful’ Husbands - Deceit and collusion
7
Lodgers and Lovers - Facing the consequences
8
Double Standards and Five-Dollar Divorces - Ending the marriage
9
Meeting Again on Earth or in Heaven - Hope for a happy reunion
10
Under Sailing Orders
“I will endeavour to give you all the instructions I can”
11
Two Lives Compared - Sophia Paynter and Mary Ann Dower
12
Choice and Power - Perceptions and emotions
13
The Worst Kind of Widowhood? - Conclusions
Notes and References Index
PUBLICATIONS
REVIEWS
What people are saying about
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The Married Widows of Cornwall
Gorsedh Kernow
Holyer an Gof Publishers' Award nominee 2019
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"... a most engaging book, packed with fascinating stories and glimpses into past lives. It illuminates the functioning of a society under a particular sort of strain
and documents many different reactions and outcomes... whether you have Cornish ancestry or not, this book is well worth reading."
Genealogists' Magazine, March 2020
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"...a volume to be heartily welcomed. It throws new light on the important topic of the Great Emigration and on the difficult lives of women and children in the mining communities... will be required reading for all those interested in nineteenth-century Cornwall."
Isobel Harvey, Cornwall Association of Local Historians Journal, Spring 2019