Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Cultural Topics/Sexual Immorality

In Stuart England, marriage and sexual morality were a central social and political concern. Contemporary morality frown upon sex taking place outside of wedlock, and was punishable through church courts. The seriousness of the punishment varied greatly. Adultery by a married woman was seen as an incredibly grave offence, as it brought into question the legitimacy of offspring. The illegitimacy rate was about 1 in 50 births.

In Stuart society, married men engaging in sex with lower status women was the typical cause of illegitimate children. These women were typically won over with gifts, but concerns over illegitimate pregnancies would have the women restrict the interaction to sexual activities in ways that fell short of actual coitus. This fear of bearing a bastard put constraints on extramarital sexual activity, and so mutual masturbation and heavy petting would take place in lieu of coitus.

Extramarital sexual activity of any kind was in theory abhorred as hateful to God and a threat to the well being of the commonwealth. Adultery was to be visited with perpetual imprisonment or exile, the forfeiture of all property rights gained by marriage, and the surrender of half a man's goods to his wife. The punishment for having illegitimate children could be imprisonment, as was the case for Alice Robinson, who had four bastards, and Thomas Greenhalgh, who had seven. In 1609, the jail term for an unwed mother was established at one year. The father of the bastard was often required to pay maintenance for the child to the amount of about 40s. per year, usually until the child was around age thirteen.

There were popular customs that were used to express hostility towards blatant sexual immorality or to exploit accusations of sexual misconduct. Notorious fornicators were visited with the harsh commotion of ‘rough music’, which was made by the beating of pots and pans. Another practice was to compose scathing rhymes, which would become the topic of vulgar gossip of sexual misdeeds.