Women and Property 1785-1789 Unique Females Only by Marital Status: 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'. **This dataset is a subset of ALL named females after being controlled for uniqueness and represents 2,296 UNIQUE FEMALES, sorted by Marital Status, then alphabetically - who were transacting property during the period 1785-1789.**本研究的研究假设为，利用藏于英格兰诺斯阿勒尔顿北约克郡县档案办公室的约克郡北区契据登记册（Registers of Deeds for the North Riding of Yorkshire），以深化学界对18至19世纪女性参与财产转让及广义房地产市场的认知。该登记册始于1736年，终止于1970年，共包含89本索引账簿（Index Ledgers）与2328份契据登记册（Deeds Registers）。1885年，数据记录体系发生变更，因此研究选取了该时间节点前后且间隔百年的两本索引账簿，以纳入《婚姻法》（Marriage Acts）的影响效应。 第一阶段，研究人员完整转录了两本索引账簿：其一为《土地索引第9卷（1784-1790年）》，涵盖7年周期，包含6868笔独立交易（共31966条记录）；其二为《1885-1889年土地索引》，涵盖5年周期，包含14481笔独立交易（共52741条记录）。每条记录对应一位当事人姓名。索引账簿的核心数据包含乡镇信息、唯一参考编号及当事人姓名，但18世纪的索引账簿未记录交易日期及全部当事人信息。由于按性别开展分析需要此类信息，研究人员通过查阅契据登记册补充了相关内容。 随后，研究人员依托单份契据登记册的信息对核心数据集进行增补：第二阶段，为所有当事人标注性别（“男性”“女性”及适用于企业的“不适用”）；第三阶段，补充了所有女性的惯常居所、职业（如有）、婚姻状况，以及其家庭关系或继承权相关细节；第四阶段，为实现与19世纪数据集的直接对标，将18世纪的数据集缩减至仅1785-1789年的5年周期。 研究从性别、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，但可对应多名当事人并涉及多个乡镇。为准确统计交易真实数量，需针对上述因素对数据进行去重控制。同时，针对参与多笔交易的个人及组织，同样需要开展唯一性控制，以避免将同名个体误判为同一主体。针对涉及女性的交易，研究将借助婚姻状况、居所或家庭关系等额外信息区分同名女性。 1785-1789年的研究结果显示，女性参与财产交易的模式因性别与婚姻状况呈现显著差异。尽管已婚女性在法律上几乎不具备独立地位（即夫妻财产统一制（coverture）），但其交易笔数占女性总交易笔数的比例超过50%。此周期内共有2086名女性参与财产交易，但仅1.39%的交易无丈夫参与；而在1885-1889年周期，这一比例提升至45.47%，印证了《已婚妇女财产法》（Married Women's Property Acts）正逐步发挥效力，开始将已婚女性视为“独立女性（feme sole）”。 本数据集为经唯一性控制后的全部在册女性的子集，共包含2296名女性个体，按婚姻状况排序后再按字母顺序排列，对应1785-1789年间参与财产交易的女性群体。