Titel: SV: Marriage customs
Skrivet av: John Bentley skrivet 2016-10-28, 22:05
Common amongst farmers, where to hold on to the tenancy and to farm economically, a married couple needed to live on the farm. A widower would remarry with a young wife as soon as possible, to look after young children being one reason, and perhaps to give him more children to work on the farm. A widow had to wait her year of mourning but then would marry a young farm hand, who would be capable of hard work being the main reason, otherwise she would not keep hold of the farm. Nevertheless the age difference you quote is at the extreme of the range. But it was one way for an otherwise poor male to get a stake in a farm, not otherwise attainable from meagre farm workers wages.