tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post7035759111381611954..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Growing Up MolineuxUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-34769402423417480522007-06-05T21:39:00.000-05:002007-06-05T21:39:00.000-05:00Social historians have studied when couples in eig...Social historians have studied when couples in eighteenth-century rural New England got married versus when their first children arrived. They found that at least 30% of couples had their first child within seven months of marriage. <BR/><BR/>Given the poor care available for premature infants then, that means almost all the babies were full-term, and couples were having sex before marriage. Some, if not many, of that group made the decision to get married only after they realized they were to be parents. <BR/><BR/>This was a change from the stricter, Puritan 1600s. While fornication outside of wedlock remained a nominal crime and sin, the authorities didn't prosecute it so harshly in the 1700s. People formally joining churches usually had to make a pro forma confession of their sins, which may often have included fornication, but when one in three of your neighbors has confessed to the same sin it wouldn't seem so difficult.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2006/07/abortion-case-in-1742-connecticut.html" REL="nofollow">This posting</A> has more on the period's sexual mores.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-18556584931311784052007-06-05T21:21:00.000-05:002007-06-05T21:21:00.000-05:00They started having children only 8 months later? ...They started having children only 8 months later? Are you saying they may have had premarital intercourse, even though such a thing never happened in history ever (according to my parents)?<BR/><BR/>Or did you meant they started having children eight months into the year, and may have been married in November?Robert S. Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06208771657848284055noreply@blogger.com