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#1
26-02-13, 13:11
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Glad they weren't my parents...
Searching my McNair branch, I came across this advertisement:
Edinburgh Evening Courant of 28th October 1758 Glasgow Oct 23rd 1758 We Robert McNair and Jean Holmes, having taken into our consideration the way and manner our daughter, Jean, acted in her marriage that she took none of our advice nor advised us before she married for which reason we discharge her from our family for more than twelve months and being afraid that some or other of our family may also presume to marry without duly advising us thereof, we taking the affair into our serious consideration hereby discbarge all and every one of our children from offering to marry without our special advice and consent first asked and obtained and if any of our children should propose or presume to offer marriage to any without as aforesaid our advice and consent they in that case shall be banished from our family twelve months and if they should go so far as to marry without our advice and consent in that case they are to be banished from the family seven years but whoever advises us of their intention to marry and obtains our consent shall not only remain children of the family but also shall have a due proportion of our goods gear and estate as we shall think convenient and as the bargain requires and farther if any of our children shall marry clandestinely they by so doing shall lose all claim or title to our effects goods gear or estate And we intimate this to all concerned that none may pretend ignorance 
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#2
26-02-13, 13:29
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I hope the rest of their children took no notice and married whoever they wanted to!
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#5
28-02-13, 07:18
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Quote:
From "The Glasgow Story" by Irene Mawer Jean Holmes (b 1703) was one of Glasgow's best-known 18th-century businesswomen who, along with her husband, Robert McNair (1703-1779), built up a considerable fortune in the grocery trade. Robert started as a small-scale orange seller and quickly developed a flair for salesmanship and self-promotion. He made his wife an equal partner in the firm of Robert McNair, Jean Holmes & Company. The arrangement was sufficiently unusual to get the couple noticed in Glasgow. The journalist Robert Reid (1773-1865) had a fund of stories about the McNairs. He described their grocer's shop in King Street as painted bright green, with two bow windows. The couple dressed flamboyantly, and Jean, who kept the accounts, "rustled through the premises in a dashing silk gown". The McNairs believed in the power of advertising and the Glasgow Courant newspaper promoted their merchandise, much of it imported from the Mediterranean. It was high-quality fare, including such luxury items as citrus fruit, nuts, raisins, figs, olives and wine. The McNairs also became the proprietors of the Eastern Sugar House in the Gallowgate, which allowed them to sell a range of refined sugar products, such as candies, syrup and treacle. While the couple's joint enterprise reflected a liberated approach to women in society, they were surprisingly inflexible when it came to their own daughter's life choices. In 1758 Jean, junior (b 1727), was openly reprimanded in a newspaper advertisement for marrying without consulting her parents. This was the same year that the McNairs purchased the estate of Little Hill, off the Camlachie Road, which they renamed Jeanfield. By 1764 a two-storey house had been erected, designed to Jean's specifications and noted as an architectural curiosity because of its irregular windows and "corkscrew" stairs. During the course of the 19th century "Jeanfield" became "Janefield", and from 1847 part of its grounds formed a cemetery. In the 1880s Janefield also had the distinction of providing the first playing field for Celtic football club. Last edited by Shona; 28-02-13 at 18:16.
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#7
28-02-13, 09:09
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Quote:
MCNAIR ROBERT 09/06/1781 FLESHER IN GLASGOW TESTAMENT DATIVE AND INVENTORY GLASGOW COMMISSARY COURT CC9/7/71
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#8
28-02-13, 09:15
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Was it normal in those days for parents to choose the husband? Lots of cultures have arranged marriages and still do. Was it part Scottish culture in the 1700s?
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#9
28-02-13, 09:34
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Quote:
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#10
28-02-13, 18:01
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Fascinating article Shona! Amazing that they should have been so ahead of their times in terms of equal business rights for the wife, and yet so backward in wanting to control their childrens' choice of partners. I can only assume that daughter Jean had made a really, really bad choice.
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