Family limitation and age at marriage: Fertility decline in Sturbridge, Massachusetts 1730–1850

Summary

This paper examines fertility behaviour in Sturbridge, Massachusetts between 1730 and 1850. The substantial decline in fertility over the period resulted from a combination of a rising female age at marriage and declining fertility within marriage. The authors suggest that declining marital fertility represents the onset of deliberate family limitation and put forward the hypothesis that it is related to the interaction of the culmination of the settlement process and the commercialization of economic life in the early nineteenth century. The change in fertility in Sturbridge, then, is explained by the combination of traditional controls over family formation and new means of fertility control.

We wish to thank Richard and Polly Rabinowitz, who began the family reconstitution; former and present staff of Old Sturbridge Village, who have studied the community; Stephens College students participating in a workshop on social history, who first scrutinized the FRFs for evidence of family limitation; John Knodel, who gave useful criticism of the work; William Mosher and Ian Rockett, who studied the age-at-marriage data.

We wish to thank Richard and Polly Rabinowitz, who began the family reconstitution; former and present staff of Old Sturbridge Village, who have studied the community; Stephens College students participating in a workshop on social history, who first scrutinized the FRFs for evidence of family limitation; John Knodel, who gave useful criticism of the work; William Mosher and Ian Rockett, who studied the age-at-marriage data.

Notes

We wish to thank Richard and Polly Rabinowitz, who began the family reconstitution; former and present staff of Old Sturbridge Village, who have studied the community; Stephens College students participating in a workshop on social history, who first scrutinized the FRFs for evidence of family limitation; John Knodel, who gave useful criticism of the work; William Mosher and Ian Rockett, who studied the age-at-marriage data.