GENTILITY
13
1 Gentility
T
he provincial women at the heart of this study hailed from families headed by lesser landed gentlemen, attornies, doctors, clerics, merchants and manufacturers. As a group they described themselves as âpoliteâ, âcivilâ, âgenteelâ, âwell-bredâ and âpolishedâ. As brides they aimed to appear âamiable and accomplishedâ. Yet they did not pretend to be members of âthe qualityâ, the people of fashion, the cosmopolitan beau monde or the ton, although they were not above harping on their exalted acquaintances among the nobility or the antiquity of their lineage when they saw fit. Their possessions were contrived to have a genteel effect, rather than a dazzling elegance, and their entertainments aimed at generous liberality not sumptuous magnificence. The pomp and splendour of a crested coach, six horses and equipage was beyond their grasp. As a shorthand description, I have labelled this group âthe politeâ or âthe genteelâ. While polite manners could be practised at lower social depths and amplified at greater heights,1 this label captures the moderate social eminence I wish to convey, combined with an emphasis on outward behaviour, while not prejudging an individualâs source of income. This choice of terms also reflects the findings of Paul Langford on the collaboration of âthe landed gentry and the upper elements of bourgeois society . . . When they did so they constituted that category of the indisputably âpoliteâ, which in the last analysis forms the closest thing to a governing class in Georgian England.â2 Above all, I have deployed these labels because âthe politeâ and âthe genteelâ are the only terms consistently used by the women studied here to convey their social prestige. They had no recourse to a vocabulary of âupperâ, âmiddleâ and âlower classâ.3 However prominent the polite in Georgian social observations, this social stratum has not been well served by recent historical investigation.
GENTLEMANâS DAUGHTER