Finding the Family in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland (review)

Abstract

(Women and Gender in the Early Modern World), Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008; hardback; pp. 206; 4 b/w illustrations, 3 tables; R.R.P. £55.00; ISBN 9780754660491.Scholarship on medieval and early modern Scotland has usually focussed on political, religious and economic studies. Over the last twenty years, social and cultural history has made its mark, followed closely by gender and women’s history. However, there is still a huge gap in the historiography and as the editors emphatically state, ‘the study of the medieval and early modern family is still in its infancy’ (p. 1). This could be perceived as somewhat strange considering the family, as a foundation for order, played a pivotal role as ‘the building block of all other social institutions’ (p. 8). The interdisciplinary essays in this collection have been combined in a text that assesses the importance of the family by expanding on broader historiographical debates. Section one’s four essays detail many of the sources available to the scholar of the family. Cynthia Neville explores medieval charters to garner information about the local and private concerns of families with regard to land and property. Such evidence demonstrates the patriarchal structures of Scottish society while highlighting the role of women in the disposition of landed estates, as wives and widows. As Neville explains, the emotional side of family life still remains hidden but the charters illuminate other areas of family life, such as religion, kinship ties, and family management. Marriage is a key to any discussion of family relations, however, as Katie Barclay argues, marital relationships have come under little scrutiny until very recently. Using the medium of ballads, she examines marital relationships between 1650-1750 in order to explore attitudes towards and tensions between