Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300244311.003.0005
R. Muir
This chapter takes a look at the barristers. Becoming a barrister was always something of a gamble: only a minority achieved even a modicum of professional success, and many quit the profession in disgust while relatively young men. The position worsened in the years after the Napoleonic Wars when the size of the Bar expanded far more quickly than the demand for barristers — partly because the end of the war made alternative careers in the army and navy much less appealing. Nonetheless for an ambitious young man, particularly of an earlier generation, the Bar was not necessarily a bad choice: it required great effort and considerable ability, luck and patience, while the rewards were far from certain. But it was relatively open to talent, and the rewards of success were great, not just in material terms, but in prestige and fame, and it could open a door into a career in politics as well as in the law.
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Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300244311.003.0007
R. Muir
This chapter discusses banking and commerce. Banking and commerce were risky activities in the early nineteenth century. For instance, of the thirteen nabobs who invested their Indian wealth in banks and sat in the Commons between 1790 and 1820, no fewer than five saw the bank fail and lost at least part of their fortune. It was this insecurity that helped underpin the social prejudice against trade. A landed gentlemen might prove a wastrel and ruin his estate, but most of his land was generally entailed, and even if it was not, his extravagance could be detected well before the final crash. But a merchant or a banker might appear prosperous and secure until, overnight, his fortune vanished or at least was severely reduced.
{"title":"Banking and Commerce","authors":"R. Muir","doi":"10.12987/yale/9780300244311.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300244311.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses banking and commerce. Banking and commerce were risky activities in the early nineteenth century. For instance, of the thirteen nabobs who invested their Indian wealth in banks and sat in the Commons between 1790 and 1820, no fewer than five saw the bank fail and lost at least part of their fortune. It was this insecurity that helped underpin the social prejudice against trade. A landed gentlemen might prove a wastrel and ruin his estate, but most of his land was generally entailed, and even if it was not, his extravagance could be detected well before the final crash. But a merchant or a banker might appear prosperous and secure until, overnight, his fortune vanished or at least was severely reduced.","PeriodicalId":170751,"journal":{"name":"Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126289825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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.
{"title":"Younger Sons and Their Families","authors":"R. Muir","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvmd861g.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvmd861g.6","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":170751,"journal":{"name":"Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125697560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.12987/9780300249545-004
R. Muir
{"title":"Chapter One. YOUNGER SONS AND THEIR FAMILIES","authors":"R. Muir","doi":"10.12987/9780300249545-004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300249545-004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":170751,"journal":{"name":"Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune","volume":"164 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116140468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter explores careers in government service. Such a career had many advantages for a younger son, especially if he could find an office as well suited to his tastes and habits. But procuring such an office was not easy and almost invariably depended on a close connection to someone who was either the dominant local magnate or influential on the national stage. Most gentlemen had some connection — either by family or friendship — with a Member of Parliament or a peer, but this was not enough to give them a realistic chance of securing anything more than a clerk's position in a government office, if indeed it stretched that far. Some politicians were more adept and successful at playing the patronage game than others — but even so they faced far more claims than they could hope to satisfy, and had to make hard choices, disappointing more clients than they pleased.
{"title":"Civil Office","authors":"R. Muir","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvmd861g.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvmd861g.13","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores careers in government service. Such a career had many advantages for a younger son, especially if he could find an office as well suited to his tastes and habits. But procuring such an office was not easy and almost invariably depended on a close connection to someone who was either the dominant local magnate or influential on the national stage. Most gentlemen had some connection — either by family or friendship — with a Member of Parliament or a peer, but this was not enough to give them a realistic chance of securing anything more than a clerk's position in a government office, if indeed it stretched that far. Some politicians were more adept and successful at playing the patronage game than others — but even so they faced far more claims than they could hope to satisfy, and had to make hard choices, disappointing more clients than they pleased.","PeriodicalId":170751,"journal":{"name":"Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130169433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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