Rachel Place: An Eligible Spinster

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

In anticipation of the start of a new season of "Finding Your Roots" which begins tonight, I am reminded about how much my own study of family history and that genealogy show have taught me about history and also of how much we don't really know or understand about history. 

A case in point is Rachel Place of Woodbridge, New Jersey and the word "spinster". 

In the year 1744 Reuben Bunn (b 1713 in Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, the son of William Bunn and Sarah Langstaf) had taken Marriage Bond #34 of New Jersey which stated that Reuben Bunn and Edward Fitzsimmons (bound to) Lewis Morris, Governor, paid 500 pounds 18 June 1744. Reuben Bunn, a bachelor, obtained a license of marriage for himself and Rachel Place (b 1716 in Woodbridge), spinster.

A marriage bond was filed with the governor during this period for prospective marital partners.  In reality, only a minority of the marriages were licensed in the colony in this way.  When they signed the bond, they were swearing they had no preexisting marital contract or other reason to prohibit marriage.  The bonds obligated the groom and his fellow bondsman, who was usually a relative of the bride, to pay the bond amount if the terms of the bond were not fulfilled.

Referring to Rachel Place at age 28 as a “spinster” with today's connotation leads one to believe that they meant she was an old, unmarried woman who was past the common age of marrying at that time. Being a spinster had a very different definition, too. Rachel was a spinster in that, at age 28, she had never been married, but she was possibly also a spinster by trade.

A spinster was a woman who spun wool to make fabric and the word was not derogatory in any way. A spinster worked as a wool spinner making thread or yarn for use in fabric to make clothing, blankets, etc. when all clothing had to be made by hand. Being a spinster was important. Independent women, as spinsters, had their own source of income and were not reliant on marriage for their livelihood. The word was the definition of what they did for a living. They were upstanding members of the community. The few men who worked in this profession were called spinners. Married women who did spinning were also called spinsters.

By the 18th century, in Rachel's time, this word began to be used to dismiss women past the customary marrying age.  Because some members of greater society could not see their way to give unmarried women recognition, the word spinster was spun into a narrative about women who refused to step into traditional roles. They and the word were vilified. The word spinster would come to be used to marginalize women who remained single. 

Today, Reuben, about three years older than his future wife, would be referred to as an "eligible bachelor". But, have you ever heard of an unmarried woman being called an "eligible spinster"?

Reuben Bunn and Rachel Place were married 18 June 1744 in Woodbridge, New Jersey and their daughter, Rachel Bunn, was born at Garrison (at Constitution Island), across from West Point. Rachel Bunn married Jesse Benjamin who was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, carrying my family's lineage forward.