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Marriage patterns and residential behaviour among Norwegian women in Amsterdam, 1621–1720

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2016

HILDE L. SOMMERSETH ,
PETER EKAMPER  and
SØLVI SOGNER
HILDE L. SOMMERSETH*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Religious Studies, University of Tromsø.
PETER EKAMPER
Affiliation:
Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI KNAW)/University of Groningen.
SØLVI SOGNER
Affiliation:
University of Oslo, Norway.
*
hilde.sommerseth@uit.no
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Abstract

Using marriage banns registers from the Amsterdam City Archives, this study identifies the demographic and spatial behaviour of Norwegian female immigrants to Amsterdam, a city that witnessed rapid economic and population growth during the seventeenth century. The article approaches the topic by making: (1) an ethnic distinction between mixed Norwegian/non-Norwegian unions and homogeneous all-Norwegian unions, as well as (2) a distinction by husband's occupation in these unions, whether at sea or on land. Like all women in Amsterdam, Norwegian women experienced a general pressure in the marriage market around 1675, though a somewhat lower pressure for homogeneous unions with sailors. Occupation may explain the residential pattern, suggesting that work defined neighbourhoods more than ethnicity.

Modèles de mariage et comportement résidentiel chez les femmes norvégiennes à amsterdam, 1621−1720

Cette étude part du dépouillement des registres de bans de mariage, pour la ville d’Amsterdam, archives qui permettent d’identifier le comportement démographique et spatial des femmes norvégiennes immigrées à Amsterdam, cité qui a connu une croissance économique et démographique rapide au cours du XVIIe siècle. L’article aborde le sujet en faisant d’une part une distinction ethnique entre les mariages mixtes (norvégien/ne − non-norvégien/ne) et les mariages homogènes (conjoints tous deux norvégiens), et d’autre part une distinction, dans ces unions, selon la profession du mari, suivant que cette dernière s’exerce en mer ou à terre. Comme toutes les femmes d’Amsterdam, les femmes norvégiennes ont fait face à une pression générale sur le marché matrimonial autour de 1675, mais une pression un peu plus faible pour les unions à caractère homogène avec des marins. Cette occupation du mari peut expliquer leur modèle résidentiel, ce qui suggère que, plus que l’appartenance ethnique, c’est le type de travail qui détermine le quartier de résidence.

Heiratsmuster und wohnverhalten norwegischer frauen in amsterdam, 1621–1720

Auf der Basis von Aufgebotsregistern im Stadtarchiv Amsterdam beschreibt dieser Beitrag das demographische und räumliche Verhalten weiblicher Einwanderer aus Norwegen nach Amsterdam, einer Stadt, die während des 17. Jahrhunderts ein rapides Wirtschafts- und Bevölkerungswachstum erlebte. Um dieses Thema in den Griff zu bekommen, unterschiedet der Beitrag (1) ethnisch zwischen gemischten (norwegischen/nicht-norwegischen) und homogenen (nur-norwegischen) Ehepaaren sowie (2) zwischen zwei Beschäftigungsgruppen, je nachdem ob der Ehemann zur See ging oder an Land arbeitete. Wie alle Frauen in Amsterdam waren auch die Norwegerinnen um 1675 einem erhöhten Druck auf dem Heiratsmarkt ausgesetzt, wobei dieser Druck für homogene Ehen mit Seeleuten geringer war. Die Wohnmuster erklären sich weitgehend aus der Beschäftigung, was den Schluss nahelegt, dass sich Nachbarschaften stärker über die Arbeit als über die Ethnizität definierten.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , August 2016 , pp. 175 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

ENDNOTES

1 A. Grosjean and S. Murdoch eds., Scottish communities abroad in the early modern period (Leiden/Boston, 2005); Sogner, S. and van Lottum, J., ‘An immigrant community? Norwegian sailors and their wives in 17th century Amsterdam’, The History of the Family 12, 3 (2007), 153–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; K. Sundsback, Life-experiences, social mobility and integration: the migration of Norwegian women to Amsterdam and Hoorn, 1600–1750 (Saarbrücken, 2012).

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5 E. Kuijpers, Migrantenstad: immigratie en sociale verhoudingen in 17e-eeuws Amsterdam (Hilversum, 2005).

6 Van der Woude, ‘Sex ratio’, 66–8. Age at marriage is based on marriage banns from 1625–1627 and 1676–1677.

7 S. Sogner, ‘Scandinavian women to Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden Age: migratory strategies’, in M. P. Arrizabalaga, D. Burgos-Vigna and M. Yusta eds., Femmes sans frontières: stratégies transnationales féminines face à la mondialisation, XVIIIe–XXIe siècles (Bern, 2011), 31–48.

8 Hart, Geschrift en Getal, 163–72.

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11 Sundsback, Life-experiences, 18.

12 Ibid., 109, 159.

13 Van de Pol and Kuijpers, ‘Poor women's migration’.

14 Ibid., 48.

15 Ibid., 49.

16 For an extended review: see Lesger, C. and van Leeuwen, M. H. D., ‘Residential segregation from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century: evidence from the Netherlands’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42, 3 (2012), 333–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Lesger and van Leeuwen, ‘Residential segregation’.

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19 Moya, J. C., ‘Domestic service in a global perspective: gender, migration and ethnic niches’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33, 4 (2007), 573CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Hart, Geschrift en Getal, esp. 115–81.

21 Available on http://www.hisgis.nl/amsterdam

22 Using the maps Amstelodamum veteris et novissimæ urbis accuratissima delineatio from 1676–1726 by C. Mortier (1st and 3rd edns) and I. Covens and C. Mortier (4th edn).

23 See also Gong, J., ‘Clarifying the standard deviational ellipse’, Geographical Analysis 34, 2 (2002), 155–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Sundsback, Life-experiences.

25 Van der Woude, ‘Sex ratio’.

26 In the first decades of the seventeenth century, mean age at marriage was 24.5 years for women marrying in Amsterdam (native born and immigrant women included).

27 A. Fauve-Chamoux ed., Domestic service and the formation of European identity: understanding the globalization of domestic work, 16th–21st centuries (Bern, 2004); A. Fauve-Chamoux, ‘Servants in preindustrial Europe’, 112–29.

28 Van de Pol and Kuijpers, ‘Poor women's migration’.

29 Grosjean and Murdoch, Scottish communities abroad; Sogner and van Lottum, ‘An immigrant community?’; Sundsback, Life-experiences.

30 Lesger and van Leeuwen, ‘Residential segregation’, 333–69; Schrover, M. and van Lottum, J., ‘Spatial concentrations and communities of immigrants in the Netherlands, 1800–1900’, Continuity and Change 22, 2 (2007), 215–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Lesger and van Leeuwen, ‘Residential segregation’, 333–69.

32 Ibid., 368.

33 Ibid.

34 Cited in Lesger and van Leeuwen, ‘Residential segregation’, 366.

35 Schrover and van Lottum, ‘Spatial concentrations’, 215–52.

36 Sundsback, Life-experiences.

37 Ibid.

38 E. Boekman, Demografie van de Joden in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1936).

39 Fauve-Chamoux, Domestic service; Fauve-Chamoux, ‘Servants’; P. Laslett and R. Wall eds., Household and family in past time (Cambridge, 1972); T. Meldrum, Domestic service and gender, 1660–1750: life and work in the London household (London, 2000).

40 Sundsback, Life-experiences.