|
List of figures
|
x |
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Acknowledgements
|
xi |
|
1 Introduction
|
1 |
|
Defining and describing cohabitation
|
4 |
|
Believing themselves to be married?
|
8 |
|
The extent of cohabitation in past times
|
14 |
|
The scope and structure of the book
|
20 |
|
2 ‘Fornicators’: the punishment of illicit sex, 1600–1760s
|
24 |
|
Punishing sex outside marriage
|
26 |
|
The rarity of cohabitation
|
33 |
|
Restoration rakes and libertines
|
40 |
|
‘Cohabitation’ contracts in the secular courts
|
43 |
|
Conclusion
|
49 |
|
3 No Name: law, morality and precedent in the long nineteenth century, 1770s–1900
|
52 |
|
What name?
|
54 |
|
Big claims and small numbers
|
57 |
|
Passing as married?
|
76 |
|
Were cohabiting couples ever treated as if they were married?
|
85 |
|
Promises of provision: the law’s approach
|
89 |
|
Divorce and cohabitation
|
102 |
|
Conclusion
|
106 |
|
4 ‘Unmarried wives’ in war and peace, 1900–1927
|
109 |
|
High theory and limited practice
|
111 |
|
Responding to reality
|
115 |
|
Wartime emergencies
|
121 |
|
Peacetime emergencies
|
127 |
|
The disappearance of the ‘unmarried wife’ from the statute book
|
129 |
|
War babies and returning soldiers
|
131 |
|
Conclusion
|
133 |
|
5 ‘Living in sin’: concerns and changes, 1928–1963
|
135 |
|
Ideas, attitudes and practices
|
139 |
|
Changing behaviour
|
143 |
|
Facilitating (re)marriage
|
149 |
|
The preference for the married family
|
154 |
|
State recognition: entitlements and disqualifications
|
158 |
|
The appearance of ‘common-law wives’
|
162 |
|
Conclusion
|
164 |
|
6 ‘Stable illicit unions’: cohabitation and the reform of divorce, 1963–1972
|
165 |
|
How many cohabiting couples were barred from marrying?
|
166 |
|
Did cohabiting couples regularise their unions in the wake of divorce reforms?
|
174 |
|
Divorce as a reason for cohabitation
|
177 |
|
Conclusion
|
183 |
|
7 ‘Common-law wives’: the creation of the myth, 1973–1979
|
184 |
|
Charting the rise of cohabitation
|
186 |
|
Visibility and acceptability
|
188 |
|
Setting up home
|
193 |
|
From ‘living in sin’ to ‘common-law marriage’
|
196 |
|
Legal change and the creation of the common-law marriage myth
|
200 |
|
The impact of change
|
217 |
|
Conclusion
|
219 |
|
8 ‘Live-in lovers’: under the Tories, 1979–1997
|
221 |
|
The accelerating rise of cohabitation
|
224 |
|
The stalling of momentum
|
231 |
|
Continuing incentives to cohabit
|
241 |
|
Cohabitants as parents
|
244 |
|
The ‘Live-in Lovers’ Bill
|
250 |
|
Conclusion
|
253 |
|
9 ‘Partners’: New Labour and neutrality, 1997–2010
|
255 |
|
Continuing legal uncertainties, omissions and limitations
|
258 |
|
Cohabitation today: difficulties in interpreting the demographic evidence
|
262 |
|
Reform deferred
|
267 |
|
Fuelling the common-law marriage myth
|
272 |
|
Conclusion
|
275 |
|
10 Conclusion
|
277 |
|
Index
|
283 |
