middlingsort

Women of the Middling Sort in the Early Modern Period

While not incredibly privileged as the aristocracy, the middling sorts held more similarities to the upper realms of society than to the working class. There were �few establishments for the education of girls and young women of the middling sort� during the 17th century but there was �clustering in the London suburbs around Hackney.�1 The focus of their learning was less on laborious processes and more on �decorative arts and domestic skills� such as calligraphy and varying types of needlework.2 As in the aristocracy, an education was one of the best ways to prepare a daughter and make her more appealing as a future wife and mother. There was definitely the mentality of schooling as the way to win a man and hopefully move up, even slightly, on the social, economic scale.
One specific group within the higher end of the middling sort was that of the clergy. For religious conversional purposes the clergy and her family were to be literate in order to be able to read (aloud) the bible and other religious manuscripts. In general, �clergymen�s families�were more literate than the average for their social class, and the wife�s facility in self-expression was apt to be matched by her husband�s ability to edit and publish her manuscripts.�3 Religious manuscripts, such as spiritual diaries or commentaries on prayer, bible stories, saints� lives and examination of the Divine, were acceptable if a woman absolutely felt she needed to go beyond her sex�s expectations (and limitations) and write either to publish or merely for her own benefit.

An example of a diary entry written by a woman on her wedding day.

For most women, the �need to enforce a devotional regime was the reason most commonly supplied by women for beginning a daily journal.�4 In the end, the �spiritual diary became a vehicle for committing thoughts to paper� for women of both the middling and upper classes.5 Religious reading and writing became a main way that a clergyman�s wife could openly learn and teach her children and become more affluent in regards to higher levels of education that some of even the upper class women were not expected or supposed to have.
Based on more secular diary entries by both the Countess of Warwick of the aristocracy and Elizabeth Walker of the middling sort, they ran their lives in very similar ways. They both educated their children, would sew and read, entertain guests and perform devotional routines. The main difference �appeared to lie in the scale of their responsibilities [versus] the nature of their duties.�6 This is a good example of how much more similar the middling sort of woman was to her aristocratic counterpart in opposition to a woman of lower class status. This illustrates the distinct difference in educational patterns that cut through social and economic levels of women. The difference between the middling sort and her aristocratic superior is grayer versus the black and white difference between the lower ranks of women and their more privileged sisters. In the end, however there was enough distinctive difference, obviously in regards to the amount of money afforded to the two separate classes, to have a big impact on how much each group of women was educated. Women of the middling sorts spent less time in school and usually did not learn as much or as long in the home, with or without a private tutor.

1 Nigel Wheale. Writing And Society. (London and New York: Routledge, 1999). 48.
2 Wheale, 49.
3 Mary Prior. Women in English Society 1500-1800. (London and New York: Methuen, 1985). 189.
4 Prior, 185.
5 Olwen Hufton. The Prospect Before Her. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995). 428.
6 Prior, 191.

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