Abstract
ABSTRACT This article addresses the boundaries of female power within early modern aristocratic families. It examines the family arrangements of Lord Emmanuel Scroop whose marriage to Elizabeth Manners was childless. The research sets out to uncover Lord Scroop’s relationship with his servant, Martha Janes, and the property litigation pursued by Janes on behalf of their four illegitimate children whom Lord Scroop left his family estates to. The article sheds light on the hidden histories of bastardy and property within aristocratic families. It investigates how Janes and her children ultimately played a central role in the succession strategies of Lord Scroop, and considers how much importance aristocratic men attached to the concept of a legitimate male bloodline. The objective is to shine a light on economic and legal relationships in aristocratic families and reveal the relative—and relational—power an unmarried woman could gain through maternity.
Highlights
This article addresses the boundaries of female power within early modern aristocratic families
The research set out to uncover Lord Scroop’s relationship with their servant, Martha Janes, the birth of four illegitimate children by this relationship, and the property litigation pursued by both wife and mistress after Lord Scroop left the family estates to these children
This article focuses on the impact of the family arrangements of Lord Emmanuel Scroop, Earl of Sunderland, whose marriage to Elizabeth Manners was childless and whose affair with a family servant – Martha Janes – led to the birth of four illegitimate children.[1]
Summary
This article addresses the boundaries of female power within early modern aristocratic families It asks the question: could a woman’s influence and authority with her husband and kin, and over matters of inheritance and succession, expand or contract through her ability – or not – to have children? The article argues that the case of Janes and her children sheds light on the hidden histories of bastardy and property within aristocratic families It investigates how Janes and her children played a central role in the inheritance and succession strategies of Lord Scroop, and examines how much importance aristocratic men attached to the concept of a legitimate male bloodline. This raises questions: if women’s authority and capacity to act in and for family affairs was partly dependent on the agency of maternity, could unmarried women who were mothers sometimes become the shapers and movers of family and landed estate, even when there was a living – but childless – wife? Despite the burgeoning body of research on women, family power and property, comparatively little has been said about the existence of either mistresses acting as the cuckoo in the nest or the inheritance of land and property by illegitimate heirs
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