Conclusion

TL;DRAbstract

This book has attempted to examine some historical concepts of the family. Central to the project has been the exploration of the household-family. When people in the eighteenth century spoke or wrote about ‘families’, they certainly could have had in mind groups of kin living together, or separately, as in present-day usages. They could also have had in mind significant notions of lineage and ancestry. But more often, what they had in mind was a household unit, which could comprise related and non-related dependants living together under the authority of a householder: it might include a spouse, children, other relations, servants and apprentices, boarders, sojourners, or only some of these. This concept of the family was thus flexible and permeable, for it could accommodate diverse family members and many changes over time. But as we have seen, ‘family’ units such as these also formed structured frameworks, with some well-understood roles and relationships. Important contractual rela

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