How were multiple brothers with the same surname addressed?
In the early 19th century (and probably some adjacent eras as well), the oldest unmarried daughter in a family was addressed as Miss [Surname], and her younger sisters were addressed as Miss [Firstname]. For example, the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice are addressed as Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth, Miss Mary, Miss Kitty and Miss Lydia. In Little Women, Meg and Jo receive an invitation to a danced addressed to "Miss March and Miss Josephine".
My question: what about brothers? If there were multiple adult brothers, how were they addressed?
Which way did the buttons on lady's maids' dresses go?
Conventional wisdom says that men's clothes and women's clothes button on opposite sides because men dressed themselves and women had help getting dressed. (I question that, because upper-class men had valets just like upper-class women had lady's maids, but that is what the conventional wisdom says.)
But, within that reasoning, what about the clothes worn by lady's maids and other women who helped upper-class women get dressed? Did their buttons go in the same direction as men's, or did they emulate the fashions of upper-class women?
I've been dressing myself in women's clothes since I developed the motor skills to do so, and, as a result, I find it awkward and counterintuitive to button up a men's shirt on myself. I once bought a set of men's pyjamas when I was having trouble finding a pair of straightforward cotton pyjamas in the women's section, and I find the backwards buttons so irritating that I leave them buttoned up all the time and put the top over my head like a t-shirt. Surely any advantage of reversing the buttons would be negated by the fact that the lady's maid is accustomed to dressing herself...
5 comments:
You need a clothing historian.
Weren't the brothers all Master Firstname while their Father was alive?
I thought "Master" was for children, and grown men were "Mr."
But I can't think of any fictional characters from an appropriate era who are grown men and have living fathers!
The only brothers I can think of are Edward and Robert Ferrars from Sense and Sensibility. There's a scene in the movie where someone refers to "Mr. Ferrars" in a way that leads the protagonists to believe Edward got married when really Robert did, but the script of the movie is different enough from the wording of the book that I'm not able to search the book electronically to see if there's a comparable scene (and I don't particularly want to "manually" read large portions of it right this minute.)
Well, there's Frank Churchill in Emma, but he has a different surname from his father!
Yes, I think you're right about Master and Mister -- Master Firstname and Mister Lastname.
Maybe only women were distinguished as Miss Lastname vs Miss Firstname?
I'm going to try to investigate further...
After a whole 10 minutes of further investigation, I'm thinking only females were distinguished this way, in keeping with female honorifics announcing marital status.
The oldest unmarried female is Miss Lastname, likely out of respect for her age, and to demonstrate that she is still available for marriage. Male honorifics don't depend on marital status, so Master Firstname for minors, Mister Lastname for age of majority and older.
This is just an educated guess, of course. I'm sure I didn't find any good online source that you overlooked.
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