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Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Naomi Tadmor
Affiliation:
New Hall, Cambridge
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Summary

This book has attempted to examine some historical concepts of the family. Central to the project has been the exploration of the household-family. When people in the eighteenth century spoke or wrote about ‘families’, they certainly could have had in mind groups of kin living together, or separately, as in present-day usages. They could also have had in mind significant notions of lineage and ancestry. But more often, what they had in mind was a household unit, which could comprise related and non-related dependants living together under the authority of a householder: it might include a spouse, children, other relations, servants and apprentices, boarders, sojourners, or only some of these. This concept of the family was thus flexible and permeable, for it could accommodate diverse family members and many changes over time. But as we have seen, ‘family’ units such as these also formed structured frameworks, with some well-understood roles and relationships. Important contractual relationships, occupational and instrumental relationships, affective relationships, and indeed kinship relationships existed within households, and these were also construed and represented in ‘familial’ terms. Accordingly, when people in the eighteenth century moved in and out of households (which they did often as servants, apprentices, spouses, wards, boarders, lodgers, or even long-term guests), their actions were often understood in terms of the household-family, its roles and relationships. Similarly, acts of transgression and defiance of authority could also be understood in terms of the structural and relational framework of the household-family.

Type
Chapter
Information
Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England
Household, Kinship and Patronage
, pp. 272 - 279
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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  • Conclusion
  • Naomi Tadmor, New Hall, Cambridge
  • Book: Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England
  • Online publication: 30 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496097.010
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  • Conclusion
  • Naomi Tadmor, New Hall, Cambridge
  • Book: Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England
  • Online publication: 30 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496097.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Naomi Tadmor, New Hall, Cambridge
  • Book: Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England
  • Online publication: 30 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496097.010
Available formats
×