Time Travels - Single Mums and Teen Brides

Alison Rough was a 16th century Edinburgh war widow - her husband was killed at Flodden and she was left raising a family on her own - which she did in her own feisty and formidable manner - often with the cards stacked against her. Professor Elizabeth Ewan formerly of the University of Guelph takes presenter Susan Morrison into Alison’s world. Raising a family on your own was tough in the 16th century but even as late as the 1970s in Scotland for single mums who refused marriage it was well-nigh unthinkable - they found stigma rather than respect. The result was that many young women got caught up in ‘shotgun weddings’ more in Scotland than in England and Wales. Oral historian Kristin Hay of Strathclyde University explores why.

Published on Saturday, 16th April 2022.

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