‘Unfortunate objects’: lone mothers in eighteenth‐century London – Tanya Evans

Eighteenth-century motherhood is a subject often neglected by historians. Literary scholars have contributed fascinating commentaries on the development of ideals of motherhood and their deployment in empire and state-building narratives and class formation. Historians of feminism note the politicised use to which motherhood was put in the later eighteenth century. Those interested in aristocratic family life or women have also marshalled evidence about the experience and emotions of elite maternity. (1) Many areas of this topic remain understudied, however. 'Unfortunate Objects': Lone Motherhood in Eighteenth-Century London offers important insights into the experience and culture of motherhood outside the upper classes. Tanya Evans examines unmarried, married and widowed lone mothers and the strategies open to them when unable to financially support their offspring.