Younger Sons and Their Families

Abstract

This chapter explores the complicated relations between siblings during the Regency era, given the privileged position of the eldest son in the family. It shows that not all gentlemen were rich; indeed, many had little money of their own and had to pursue a career. The eldest son would normally inherit the family estate, while the daughters and younger sons would receive no more than a start in life. Inequality of various kinds was universal and taken for granted, challenged only by the most radical and impractical of political philosophers and French republicans in the most extreme phase of their disastrous revolution. Younger sons of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries usually accepted their inferior position and meagre inheritance without complaint.