{"id":17125,"date":"2022-06-22T14:11:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=11578"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:14:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:14:22","slug":"the-rule-of-thumb","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/the-rule-of-thumb\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rule of Thumb"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Sarah Williams\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 22 June 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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In December 1798, one Mr Ryan, butler to Lord Llandaff, was arrested for \u201cviolently assaulting\u201d his wife, a servant in the same household. Ryan, drunk, had beaten her with a large iron key, and was said to have \u201cbehaved in the most brutal manner to his wife\u201d (Mirror of the Times, 8-15 December 1798).<\/p>\n

We now use the phrase \u2018domestic abuse\u2019 to cover a whole range of behaviours, but it was the phrase \u2018domestic violence\u2019 that was first coined in the late-19th-century to describe assaults on a woman by a man within a domestic relationship. However, as the Ryan case shows, spousal assaults are a far older phenomenon. Cases of domestic assault appear in historical records such as magistrates\u2019 notebooks, as well as in Quarter Session or Assize records.<\/p>\n

Georgian newspapers<\/a> would cover the more dramatic assault cases \u2013 then, as now, focusing on the more unusual or salacious details. One case covered by the Daily Post<\/em> in July 1724 focused on the husband\u2019s religion, insinuating that the man, Doyle, was violent because he was Roman Catholic.<\/p>\n

The same newspaper wrote about another case five years later that caught its interest because the couple in question had been the owners of a brothel \u2013 a titillating detail that made this case of assault and beating newsworthy. Other cases were more likely to be covered by the media if the wife was critically or fatally injured as a result of the assault. So the story of a Mrs Russell, heavily pregnant by her soldier husband, Francis, made the Evening Post<\/em> in August 1730 because she died after he beat her with his shoe before cutting her throat.<\/p>\n

Marital discord could often involve property or money. Under the legal doctrine of coverture, which had originated in the middle ages and continued into the Victorian era, women forfeited their legal rights on marriage, together with their ability to own property or keep their own wages. Husbands were seen as owners of their wives, with women\u2019s possessions and money becoming their husband\u2019s property on marriage. Men were very aware of their power in this regard, and disputes would sometimes result in a man physically barring his wife from entering their home, because legally it was \u2018his\u2019.<\/p>\n

The few surviving magistrates\u2019 notebooks \u2013 where Justices of the Peace (JPs) recorded the cases that came before them \u2013 are a wealth of information about such issues. For example, in 1747, when Wiltshire magistrate William Hunt heard a complaint brought by Mary Bayley, wife of a gardener from Urchfont, that her husband was refusing to let her into their home, or pay her any maintenance so that she could survive elsewhere, it was nothing new. James Bayley had as little respect for the legal system as for his wife \u2013 despite Hunt issuing two warrants for his appearance before him, Bayley ignored them, and continued to forbid his wife from entering the marital home.<\/p>\n

The first port of call for many women in distress was their community. Women would rely on their family, friends or neighbours for support and to either negotiate a truce or to shame a husband into behaving. Only when this community failed to materialise or have an effect would many women seek an alternative recourse, by going to see their local magistrate.<\/p>\n

The Rule of Thumb and domestic abuse<\/h3>\nMagistrates, or Justices of the Peace, were traditionally drawn from the gentry \u2013 men with the income to be able to take on a usually unpaid role that involved travel expenses (although later, stipendiary magistrates, on a salary, were appointed where unpaid JPs could not be found). In the 18th century<\/a>, they would often hear cases in their own homes, seeing people come to them with a variety of complaints in the hope that the magistrate could help improve their situation. The judge would come in later, overseeing trials.<\/p>\n
The role of magistrates and judges could be a difficult one when it came to ruling on domestic violence cases \u2013 and their opinions could be criticised by the media or the public. Most famously, in 1782, caricaturist James Gillray published a cartoon mocking Judge Francis Buller for ruling that a man could legally beat his wife, as long as he used a stick that was no thicker than his thumb.<\/p>\n
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