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    The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday: Love & Mischief in 19th Century Personal Ads
    The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday: Love & Mischief in 19th Century Personal Ads
    The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday: Love & Mischief in 19th Century Personal Ads
    Ebook69 pages38 minutes

    The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday: Love & Mischief in 19th Century Personal Ads

    By Planet Explorers

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    About this ebook

    Personal advertisements have been around as long as newspapers themselves. If you're curious about what a "matrimonial ad" from the 1800s looked like, this is your book. Read it aloud and marvel at missives like:

    "Gentleman, 38, height 5 ft., 9 in., weight 170, black hair, brown eyes, fair complexion, wishes to meet lady, 35 to 38, refined, normal weight, good looking, good teeth, not tired of society, and invest and accept half interest in a manufacturing business; can handle her own money; view to matrimony. Stamp for reply."

    "I hereby give notice to all unmarried women that I, John -----, am at this writing five-and-forty, a widower, and in want of a wife. As I wish no one to be mistaken, I have a good cottage, with a couple of acres of land, for which I pay 2--- a year. I have five children, four of them old enough to be in employment; three sides of bacon, and some pigs ready for market. I should like to have a woman fit to take care of her house when I am out. I want no second family. She may be between forty and fifty if she likes. A good stirring woman would be preferred, who would take care of the pigs."

    This book of 19th and early 20th century matrimonial advertisements--along with newspaper stories about romantic advertising adventures gone awry--will lighten your mood and reveal the unchanging optimism of men and women searching for love. The collection is organized by year, with ads from 1775 to 1918.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlanet Explorers
    Release dateMay 9, 2012
    ISBN9781476029313
    The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday: Love & Mischief in 19th Century Personal Ads
    Author

    Planet Explorers

    Laura Schaefer got her start as a contributor to the University of Wisconsin’s student paper The Daily Cardinal and went on to write regularly for The Princeton Review and Match.com. Laura is the author of The Secret Ingredient (Simon & Schuster 2011), The Teashop Girls (Simon & Schuster 2008), and Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor (Avalon 2005). Laura is also the author and publisher of the Planet Explorers series of travel guidebooks for kids. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Check out Laura's websites: www.teashopgirls.com and http://planetexplorers.webnode.com.

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      Book preview

      The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday - Planet Explorers

      The Lonely Hearts of Yesterday

      Love, Mischief & Murder in 19th and Early 20th Century Personal Ads

      Edited by Laura Schaefer

      Copyright 2012 by Laura Schaefer

      Smashwords edition license notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      The Author is not affiliated with any of the newspapers linked in the text. All content was published before 1923 and is in the public domain.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      1775

      1776

      1802

      1837

      1842

      1847

      1853

      1860

      1861

      1862

      1863

      1867

      1868

      1869

      1870

      1872

      1873

      1876

      1880

      1883

      1884

      1886

      1887

      1890

      1891

      1893

      1894

      1895

      1897

      1898

      1899

      1900

      1901

      1902

      1904

      1905

      1906

      1907

      1908

      1910

      1912

      1913

      1914

      1915

      1916

      1917

      1918

      1775

      To the Fair Sex. Wanted—a Partner for Life. Either maiden or widow gentlewoman upwards of 30 that may be agreeable to the married state. As to the person easy in that choice I prefer sweetness of temper to personal appearance. ~The English Morning Chronicle, 1775.

      1776

      MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT OF THE LAST CENTURY.

      In the Public Advertiser, April 16th, 1776, there appeared the following most extraordinary matrimonial advertisement:—A gentleman who hath fulfilled two succeeding seats in Parliament is nearly sixty years of age, lives in great splendour and hospitality, and from whom a considerable estate must pass if he die without issue, hath no objection to marry any widow or single lady, provided the party be of genteel birth, polite manners, and five, six, or seven, or eight months gone in pregnancy. Letters addressed to—Brecknock, Esq., at Will's Coffee house, facing the Admiralty, will be honoured with due attention, secrecy and every possible mark of respect. ~Reprinted in The Weekly Chronicle | London, Middlesex | Saturday, August 19, 1848 | Page 7

      1802

      "The London Times, May 7, 1802: To Settled and Single Ladies, who are so situated as to command that happiness in life which the Sexes, when dispositions are mutually attemptered, constitute in each other.—A Gentleman, destitute of further introductions' that the recommendation of expressing himself, desirous of becoming allied with some provided-for Female-of sentiment, who has no objection to alter her state for the society of an infirm, but (to be candid) affectionate and considerate Man, of little –more than 30, whose particular wish is to be fixed and settled; but whose dependence having been rendered very limited, his Intentions of quitting the Mother-Country to improve his circumstances will be changed only by some connection as above stated. As society and the means of genteel support are objects which duty directs to precede a too great warmth of affection, any amiable and judicious Woman, situated as before

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