Abstract
The features of historical marriage patterns have been linked to debates in social and economic history about economic growth and female agency. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the demographics of marriage prior to the nineteenth century. Here, we study trends in sex-specific ages at first marriage, regional variation and the impact of migration on marital timing in the Netherlands in the period 1650-1900. We make use of two new large historical datasets, namely an aggregation of Dutch genealogies and the transcribed marriage banns of Amsterdam. This allows us to understand the features and developments of marriage ages from a long-term perspective in what is known as one of the core-areas of the so-called European Marriage Pattern. Our results show high marriage ages for both sexes from the beginning of our study period, increasing until the mid-19th century. A closer look at regional variation reveals clear differences between the provinces and between urban and rural settings with those in the western part of the country and in urban centers marrying earlier. Migrating individuals married on average later than non-migrating individuals both compared to men and women in the receiving community, as to the ‘stayers’ in the location of origin. As later marriage implies a reduction of the window of fertility, especially for women, our results suggest that migration and increasing regional mobility might have been an important driver of the demographic shift toward higher marriage ages and lower fertility in Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries.
Highlights
In his seminal paper, Hajnal (1965) argued that the north-western regions of Europe have been characterized by a specific marriage pattern since the early modern period – the so-called European Marriage Pattern (EMP)
We look at trends and possible sex-differences in marital timing in all data sets and regional variation within the Netherlands by reporting mean values for the variables of interest for 50-year marriage cohorts
In 1650-99, the genealogical data tells us that average female marriage age was about 24 years and rose to about 25.7 years by 1850-99, with very little difference between Amsterdam and all of the Netherlands
Summary
In his seminal paper, Hajnal (1965) argued that the north-western regions of Europe (especially the Netherlands, Belgium and England) have been characterized by a specific marriage pattern since the early modern period – the so-called European Marriage Pattern (EMP). In these regions both males and females marry late, couples tend to start their own household as they marry (neolocality) and there is a high percentage of lifetime singles. The reduced spousal age gap that resulted from later marriage for women has been interpreted as a trend toward increased female agency (e.g. Shorter 1975; Carmichael, de Moor, & van Zanden, 2011; Carmichael et al 2015)
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