Women and Property 1785-1789 dataset: North Riding Register of Deeds

Research hypothesis was to use the Registers of Deeds for the North Riding of Yorkshire (held at North Yorkshire County Record Office, Northallerton, England) to advance knowledge about women's involvement with property transfer and the wider property market in the 18th & 19th centuries. Registers began in 1736 and ceased in 1970; there are 89 Index Ledgers and 2,328 Deeds Registers. The system for recording data changed in 1885 so one Index Ledger was selected from pre/ post this date and 100 years apart to incorporate impact of Marriage Acts. Stage 1 - Two Index Ledgers were transcribed in full: 1) Index of Lands Vol 9 (1784-90) covers a seven-year period and contains 6,868 unique transactions (31,966 lines); and 2) Index of Lands 1885-1889 covers a five-year period and contains 14,481 unique transactions (52,741 lines). Each line represents a person's name. Core data from Index showed Township, unique reference and names of parties, but the 18th century Index Ledger did not show date of transaction or all parties. To analyse by gender this information was required so was added by using the Deeds Registers. Information from the individual Deeds Registers was then used to add to the core datasets: Stage 2 - The gender of all parties ('male', 'female' and 'not applicable' (for businesses) was added. Stage 3 - The usual residence, occupation (if any), marital status and any details of family relationships or inheritance rights of every women was added. Stage 4 - The 18th century dataset was then reduced to a five-year period covering 1785-1789 ONLY to provide a direct comparison with the 19th century dataset. Comparative analysis by: gender, marital status and number of transactions. Each transaction has a unique reference number but can contain multiple parties and cover more than one township. To identify the true number of transactions, the data had to be controlled for these factors. A control for uniqueness was also required for those individuals and organisations involved in multiple transactions and to avoid assuming that everyone with the same name was actually the same person. Where women were involved, additional data e.g. marital status, residence or family relationships was used to differentiate between like women. 1785-1789 findings include: distinctive patterns of female property involvement by gender and marital status. Married women represent more than 50% of female transactions despite having little, if any, legal status (coverture). Although 2,086 women transacted during this period, only 1.39% did so without husband's involvement; this increased to 45.47% by 1885-1889 period, reinforcing that Married Women's Property Acts were beginning to make an impact, treating married women as if 'feme sole'. More parity of involvement across marital status groups in 1885-1889 data, with spinsters' involvement increasing the most (from 17.58% to 31.37%).本研究的研究假设为，借助藏于英格兰诺萨勒顿北约克郡档案保管处（North Yorkshire County Record Office, Northallerton, England）的《北约克郡骑区（North Riding of Yorkshire）土地登记册（Deeds Registers）》，深化对18至19世纪女性参与财产转让及广义房地产市场的认知。该登记册自1736年启用，1970年停用，共计包含89本索引账簿（Index Ledgers）与2328份土地登记册。1885年，数据记录体系发生变更，因此研究分别选取该日期前后且间隔100年的各一本索引账簿，以纳入《婚姻法（Marriage Acts）》的影响维度。 第一阶段——完成两本索引账簿的全量转录：其一为《土地索引第9卷（1784-1790年）》，涵盖7年时段，包含6868笔独立交易（对应31966条记录）；其二为《1885-1889年土地索引》，涵盖5年时段，包含14481笔独立交易（对应52741条记录）。每条记录对应一名当事人姓名。索引核心数据包含乡镇名称、唯一参考编号及当事人姓名，但18世纪的索引账簿未标注交易日期，也未完整收录所有当事人信息。若需按性别维度开展分析，则需补充此类信息，因此通过土地登记册补充了相关内容。 随后利用单份土地登记册的信息补充至核心数据集： 第二阶段——补充所有当事人的性别信息（分为"男性""女性"及"企业适用"）； 第三阶段——补充每位女性的常住地址、职业（若有）、婚姻状况，以及所有涉及的亲属关系或继承权细节； 第四阶段——将18世纪数据集缩减至仅1785-1789年的5年时段，以便与19世纪数据集进行直接对比。后续将从性别、婚姻状况及交易数量三个维度开展对比分析。 每笔交易拥有唯一参考编号，但可包含多名当事人，且可覆盖多个乡镇。为确定真实交易数量，需针对上述因素对数据进行管控。此外，针对参与多笔交易的个人及组织，也需开展唯一性管控，避免将同名个体误判为同一主体。在涉及女性当事人的场景中，将借助婚姻状况、常住地址或亲属关系等额外信息，区分同名女性。 1785-1789年的研究结果显示，女性的财产参与模式因性别与婚姻状况呈现显著差异。尽管已婚女性几乎不具备法定财产权（处于婚姻财产权限制（coverture）状态下），但其交易占女性总交易的比例超过50%。尽管此时段内共有2086名女性参与交易，但仅1.39%的交易无丈夫参与；而在1885-1889年时段，该占比提升至45.47%，印证了《已婚妇女财产法》已开始发挥作用，将已婚女性视为"独立女性（feme sole）"。1885-1889年的数据显示，不同婚姻状况群体的参与度更趋均衡，其中未婚女性的参与占比增幅最为显著（从17.58%提升至31.37%）。