In the 1600s was it common to be a teen mother?

Answer 1

Until perhaps the 1870s it was common to marry earlier than now. For example, age 16 (and even younger) was quite common for girls. (If I look back at my own family it was quite common until about 1900 for the young women to marry at 17-21. Nowadays, it would be assumed that they should be at high school or college at that age). For girls in particular the age of marriage was much closer than now to the onset of fertilty. In the 1600s the minimum legal age for marriage in England was 12 (!) but the actual minimum was about 14-15. Parliament raised the minimum age for marriage (and the age of consent) to16 in 1885. Men had to wait till they were reasonably well established in their occupation so that they could provide for dependants. To avoid misunderstanding, though, I'd stress that we are talking about marriage, not about unmarried teenage mothers. If a girl became pregnant the father was expected to marry her without further ado. This remained common until 1960s. There could be difficulties, however, even in the 1600s. In 1642 the 33-year-oldpoet, John Milton married a girl of 16. She found him very overbearing,demanding and a bit of a bully. All concerned were very upset when she returned to her own family soon after the wedding. So those early marriages for young women weren't all plain sailing. Joncey