Family formation in Victorian Scotland

The thesis represents a micro-level study of the processes of family formation exhibited by iron and textile workers in the context of two Scottish towns during the second half of the nineteenth century. One of the major underlying hypotheses is that specific occupational groups may demonstrate particular forms of marital and childbearing behaviour and, moreover, that these occupationally-specific patterns may, at least in part, be explained by the nature and circumstances of the occupations themselves.Record linkage between census enumerators' books and civil registration schedules, in the manner of family reconstitution, permitted the construction of data sets encompassing the entire reproductive careers of iron and textile workers' wives. In addition, two further groups of workers, one from each of the two towns, who were not engaged in either iron or textile manufacture, were also selected for study, in an attempt to investigate any locationallv-specific patterns, possibly arising from a 'shadow effect.', whereby demographic behaviour associated with either iron or textile workers may have been emulated by others living in the same town.An initial investigation of certain of the iron and textile workers' nuotiality and fertility patterns revealed a differential in completed family size of almost one child in favour of the former group. The subseauent detailed examination of marriage and childbearing behaviour produced evidence to support an hypothesis that the textile workers were beginning to operate with a degree of success, one or more strategies designed to control fertility and ultimately limit family size. Furthermore, it was evident that this potential example of family limitation was occurring during the early stages of the overall decline in British fertility