"No unsuitable match": Defining rank in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Scotland

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, when entry into the profess ions was still fluid, and 'rank' rather than 'class' characterised social r elationships, status depended on finely graded nuances. A unique source-tha t reveals the minutiae of perceived differences in rank and status-and more over on a gendered basis-is the record of Declarator of Marriage cases hear d before Edinburgh Commissary Court. Scottish law continued to recognise (a s 'irregular' but legal) marriages constituted by a promise of marriage fol lowed by intercourse between the parties. If the man denied the promise the woman could sue him in court and, if unable to prove a marriage, still had the possibility of being awarded damages for seduction. In such cases it w as in the interests of the man's lawyer to prove that the woman could not h ave expected marriage when she had sex with him since she was of a lower ra nk, while the woman's lawyer naturally disputed this. From these cases spec ific strands emerge: upward and downward mobility of fathers, occupations o f the women themselves, and a surprisingly great stress on the woman's educ ation.