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Seduction in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland

1999; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 78; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3366/shr.1999.78.1.39

1750-0222

Leah Leneman,

Historical Economic and Social Studies

Over the centuries, and in most cultures, when an unmarried man and an unmarried woman had sex together, it was generally assumed that the man persuaded or 'seduced' the woman to this. A woman's sexual desires might be as great as a man's, but only the woman ran the risk of pregnancy. And even if a father could be held liable for the support of a child borne by a woman not his wife (as he certainly could be in eigh teenth and early nineteenth-century Scotland), that child would not normally inherit any of his goods or estate. Furthermore, society had rules whereby a married woman was considered a 'respectable' member of the community, and her children 'lawful' children, while the children of an unmarried woman were bastards and she herself was marginalised. As far as Scottish law was concerned, if a woman could prove that she had been persuaded into sexual intercourse by the man's convincing her that a marriage was thereby being consummated, she was entitled to damages for seduction.