- So, if you were in the Regency Era middle-class hoping
to marry up into the upper landed gentry
and nobility class,
what would you do?
Could you do it?
And if you could, how would you pull it off.
Today, we'll be going over exactly the steps
you would need to take in order to be able
to move up the class.
My name is Ellie Dashwood and this is my channel
where we talk about history and apparently,
marrying up into the aristocracy of England.
If you like either of those topics,
then definitely subscribe.
In one of my recent videos,
we talked all about the class hierarchy during this time
and how social mobility wasn't really a thing.
It certainly was not like it is today.
And more particularly,
we talked about how there were spheres of life,
where you could move up within the sphere,
you could move down within the sphere,
but it was incredibly,
extremely hard to move from one sphere
to the sphere above it,
but that did not stop some people from dreaming
and hoping that they could pull this off.
And more particularly,
we saw this in the middle class,
specifically the upper middle class.
We are going to be talking here today,
especially about perhaps those in trade
or those in manufacturing,
and what steps that they would take to try to
get themselves from being just part of the middle class,
to being upper class.
And their ability to do this was dependent
on four main factors.
They were money, manners, marriage, and manor.
So, let's dive into those.
So first step, money.
Obviously, then as now.
Money opens many doors.
And if you were in trade hoping to break
into the upper class, then what you needed to do
was have a lot of money.
Like a lot of it,
like as much as money as you possibly can get.
And like I talk about my video
on whether Mr. Darcy's actually rich,
there were some major merchants who made just as much money
as those in the social 1%.
And those were the people in particular who could start
to qualify to cross this upper-class boundary.
One of you guys asked this question in the comments once
of like, were there better trades to be in socially?
Because of course, as we know from my video,
"How to be a Lady or Gentleman in Jane Austen's Time,"
that being in trade in general
was something looked down upon by those of a higher class.
Look who has come to visit us.
Say hi, say hi to the people.
So the answer is yes, all trades were not equal.
In fact, there were even some considered as a very,
I guess you would say noble trade.
They still weren't ideal.
But if you were going to be in trade,
you would want to be in trade at a very large scale.
So if you were dealing as a merchant of luxury goods,
such as a wine,
then that would have been considered a more noble
or socially acceptable form of trade to be in.
I've gotta put you down.
And this is of course, opposed to somebody who owns a shop.
Like if you are a shopkeeper or the child of a shopkeeper,
you just have one little store
that sells candle sticks or something,
then that was pretty much at the bottom of a scale of trade.
And honestly, if that was the level of trade
your family's engaged in,
but that point it would have been pretty much impossible
for you to break into the upper class,
because that would be, of course,
one of the lowest forms of trade and only those
in these very respectable lines of trade would qualify.
Just very interesting,
because as we are told in "Pride and Prejudice,"
Elizabeth's uncle, Mr. Gardiner,
is in a respectable line of trade in London,
and it also talks about him having warehouses.
So here we see him as a perfect example of somebody who is
in trade on a large scale
and makes quite a bit of money from it.
But you might still notice, even though Mr. Gardiner
is at that top level of trade,
he's still looked down upon.
And so exactly how can someone in his position transfer over
from being just this guy in trade,
helping his family become more high class?
Well, if he's making enough money,
he can embark on requirement number two, which is manners.
So once you make sure that you're in the right type
of trade, you're making enough money,
what you need to use that money to do is to try
to adopt the manners, lifestyle, recreation,
education of the upper class.
You have to go to the right opera,
be seen in the right places.
You had to send your daughters to the most fancy
and expensive schools in town so that they can get all
of those required accomplishments to be a lady.
And to learn more about what they would need
to learn at those schools, definitely check out my video,
"Regency Era Girl's Education."
I'm not sure why I suddenly said that
in like this really deep tone of voice,
we're going with it there.
Basically, what you would need to do is become socially
and visually through your dress and lifestyle,
as much like the class you want to join as possible,
which is interesting because when we're talking
about playing the part and looking the part,
it reminds me of the scene when Elizabeth and the Gardiners
visit Pemberley and Mr. Darcy's coming up to meet them,
and he's being all nice.
And Elizabeth thinks this,
"What will be his surprise?"
thought she, "When he knows who they are.
He takes them now for people of fashion," right?
She's like they appear so fashionable,
that's what he thinks they are,
but they're secretly not, they're in trade.
And I think this does show that the Gardiners
are doing a great job of appearing
to be of the class above them,
not to mention they have impeccable manners and taste
and how they behave and conduct themselves,
which also recommends them to the upper class.
And one of the things they would definitely imitate
the upper-class in was liking this video.
I'm sure every upper-class person in the Regency Era
would have liked my videos if they had the internet.
And likewise, if you would like to like this video, too,
I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you.
So once you have now essentially learned to imitate
the class that you want to become,
the third thing to do is marry your daughters off to them,
if at all possible.
And there's one major way to make that possible
and it's called money.
So like I mentioned,
you need to make sure that your daughters are completely
trained to be perfect, fashionable, elegant,
accomplished ladies.
Once that happens,
what you need to do is then add the most important piece
to this puzzle, money, in the form of a dowery or fortune.
So exactly how much money does your daughter need
to be desirable to a man of the upper class?
And the answer is they need a fortune greater
than the fortune of young women who belong to that class.
So for example, both in the Wood house and Georgiana Darcy,
have 30,000 pounds,
and that was a pretty common amount of a fortune
to give a daughter in the upper class.
Obviously, some families in the upper-class
gave their daughters a lot more, some gave them a lot less,
but at that level of great family,
30,000 was about the average.
So how much money would your daughter need?
Well, over 30,000 and significantly over 30,000.
We're talking 50,000, 60,000.
Pretty much, you have to make your daughter's fortune
irresistible to a man from the upper class
who is short on money.
Yeah, it's kind of that simple.
Basically, if there's an upper-class man
and he can marry an upper-class girl and get the same amount
of money as your daughter has, then he's going to do that.
He's going to marry within his own class,
but by making your daughter's fortune extra large
and tempting,
that is what's going to cause him to step over class lines
to marry her.
Because remember, in my video on class,
I was talking about how, like,
they don't really like to go over class lines,
especially if they don't have to,
and pretty much making sure your daughter has a lot of money
and he needs money is one of those ways to get him
to do the thing he doesn't really want to do,
which is marry outside of his class.
But he's going to do it any way because well, money.
But again, that money also has to be paired
with the fact that your daughter is capable
of acting, living, and appearing as part of his class,
because he also doesn't want to be embarrassed
by his wife socially.
Now, what's really interesting about this aspect
is this is something we might be seeing happen
in "Sense and Sensibility."
So Miss Grey in "Sense and Sensibility"
has 50,000 pounds, which you'll notice is significantly more
than 30,000 pounds,
but that doesn't necessarily mean
that she's coming from trade.
In fact, we don't have a lot of information
about who her family is,
except for the fact that her parents are dead
and her family is known for being super rich.
But one thing that makes me think that possibly her money
might have been made in trade other than the fact
of her high dowery, is that she marries Willoughby.
So it's always been kind of this question of like,
why on earth does Miss Grey marry Willoughby?
She knows he's a rake in a scoundrel, he's in debt,
he's not even nice to her, he's in love with another woman.
Meanwhile, she's super rich.
Well, why does she marry him?
And one possible answer is that if her family did make money
in trade, by her marrying Willoughby,
she gains social standing because
as horrible as Willoughby is,
he is still a landed gentleman within an estate of his own.
And now she will have the standing of being the wife
of a landed gentleman,
which is a definite step up for her socially.
And so, while obviously once the daughter marries
into the upper class,
that is now her standing and position in society.
That doesn't mean that necessarily
the upper-class forgets where she comes from.
And I think this is perfectly demonstrated in Jane Austen's
"Emma," where, you know,
Emma definitely remembers the fact that Mrs. Elton's family
made their money in trade.
But at the same time,
she treats her with respect and courtesy
of being a clergyman's wife,
versus how she's very hesitant to interact with the people
who are still on trade, which are the Coles.
So Mrs. Elton definitely married up socially
into a higher social standing,
but that doesn't mean anybody forgot
where her money came from.
But by marrying your daughters off into these families,
this still helps you in the fact
that you're now building connections,
but basically, who you were related to,
whether by blood or marriage, was important,
it was like social currency.
And just by having a daughter married to someone notable
of the upper-class would give your whole family
a social boost,
which I do have to say this for the Gardiner family,
because Lizzy marries Darcy,
they have some serious connections going on now,
and this may actually help when it's time
to start marrying off their own children.
Be like, "Yeah, Mr. Darcy's my cousin.
I go to Pemberley all the time.
I'm just from such a rich fancy family."
So the fourth step or thing to do to help move your family
up is to your money to buy land.
Yes, this is the manor section.
I just labeled it manor so that it kept
the M theme going there.
Anyway, basically,
if you could get enough money and buy land,
you would now be breaking into
being a landed gentlemen, right?
Like you're moving your whole family up.
And of course, the ideal would be to eventually be able to
buy enough land or have enough money to essentially stop
being in trade and try to transition over
into just being a member of the gentry.
And of course, this is something that we actually see
happening in "Pride and Prejudice" with Mr. Bingley.
His father made their family fortune in trade.
And now, Mr. Bingley has the family fortune
of a hundred thousand pounds invested.
And this is a question somebody asks in the comments, too,
of where does Mr. Bingley's money come from?
And this is where that 100,000 pounds, that's invested.
And what's super interesting about the way
that his income is stated in "Pride and Prejudice"
includes a degree of uncertainty
because of an important factor.
Fact in chapter one, when Mrs. Bennett is breaking the news
to her husband that Mr. Bingley's coming to the area,
this is what she has to say about his income,
"A single man of large fortune, four or 5,000 a year.
What a fine thing for our girls."
Okay, have you ever wondered why is it four or 5,000 a year?
And the answer is of course,
money that is invested during this time period
was usually invested in something either called
the four percents or the five percents,
which is the amount of interest that money would earn.
So 4% would earn 4% interest,
which on a hundred thousand pounds is 4,000 pounds.
And at 5%, it would be 5,000 pounds.
And Mrs. Bennett doesn't know
because she doesn't know at which percentage
he has his money invested.
And one of those things that Mr. Bingley
is supposed to be doing with his money
is buying an estate and being a country gentlemen.
But Mr. Bingley being him, he just can't decide what to buy.
And that drives his sisters crazy,
like I talked about in my video
on how to be a Regency Era gentlemen or lady.
So again, check that out if you want to learn more.
So those were the major steps somebody
in the very upper middle class coming from trade
would have to take in order to try to break
into the upper class.
But what if you weren't from the highest most part
of the middle-class?
What if you were just middle middle class
or even lower middle class?
Your dad really does just own a shop selling candlesticks.
Could you still maybe through marriage
make it into the class?
Well, not very often.
And if you did, you faced social disgrace,
ostracism, ridicule,
and just general disapproval.
That would be seen as you trying
to jump way too far from the bottom of your social sphere
into the next one up.
Would be definitely looked down upon by society.
And I think we see this attitude really well-represented
in this conduct book called "Letters to a Young Lady."
And of course, a conduct book during this time period
was essentially a self-help book.
They were really popular.
They taught young women about how they should think,
how they should feel.
They were kind of intense.
In fact, I talk more about conduct books in my video
on one called "How to be the Ideal Regency Girl,"
where I dive into "Fordyce's Sermons," which is yes,
the book that Mr. Collins likes to read to his fare cousins,
but they don't really appreciate it.
And this addresses the issue of girls trying to marry up
into the class above them.
Anyway, it says, "So with respect to disparity of fortune,
I do not mean to estimate it by a mere weight of metal
when other considerations are equal.
It is my wish to warn young women from aiming at conquests
on the score of their personal attractions,
to which neither their birth, connections, education,
nor situation entitle them to aspire."
So basically starts out with saying,
I'm not just talking about metal or money,
girls who do not have these social standing
with those education and position that he's talking about,
have no right to even dream of making a great match.
Then it says, "If the erotic pursuers of happiness
would candidly state their discoveries,
we should probably accede to the proposition
that everyone is happiest in the state of life
to which they have been accustomed.
A young woman of humble connections
and inferior accomplishments,
who is engrafted into an honorable stock,
will experience
mortifications from the family to which she is allied,
that can only be parried by effrontery or stupidity."
So first, he's like everyone's happiest in their own class.
And then he's like,
if you do manage to make a good marriage,
the family you married into will
just be constantly mortifying you.
"She will also be conscious of improprieties and omissions,
which nothing but an early initiation into high life
would have taught her to avoid."
Basically, you won't know how to behave properly,
you'll be embarrassing yourself all the time.
"And even the glittering equipage
which so forcibly struck her youthful fancy
will seem but a painful conveyance.
If it passed by the amusement that she could have enjoyed
and sat her down at what she detests."
Basically, if before you were married, you were like, wow,
that carriage, it's so fancy, I want a carriage like that.
Well, once you're married and you've been mortified
and humiliated and you make mistakes everywhere,
and you're going to say, some fancy ball where you know
you'll just be mortified even more,
well, you'll be in it and you're like,
"This fancy carriage is awful.
I wish I stayed poor.
Look at that low class entertainment.
I wish I was going there,
but no, I'm stuck hanging out with rich people."
So many sad things were happening for these girls
marrying above their station in the Regency Era.
And you also might notice throughout this whole quote,
how there was this assumption that the girl
wouldn't know how to behave properly,
which is one of the reasons why on that list
of the four things you need to do to marry up
was imitating in manners and lifestyle,
the upper-class as much as you could
so that when you did marry your kids off,
they would be fine in that class.
And their whole life wouldn't be one long series
of mortifications.
Anyway, let me know in the comments below
if you were in trade in the middle-class
in the Regency Era.
Would you be trying to move up in society
through marriage or buying land?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video
and keep having an awesome day 'cause you're awesome.
Bye.
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