Old legal and record term 1600s-1900s
What does spinster mean in old marriage records?
In records, a spinster is a woman who has never married, whatever her age; a bride of nineteen is a spinster on her marriage bond. It began as a spinner of wool and became the law's word for never-married. On a marriage record it rules out an earlier husband, which widow would not. You will meet it in marriage records, wills, and parish registers, mostly 1600s-1900s.
Where it appears: marriage records, wills, parish registers.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
Where will I see spinster in the records?+
Mostly in marriage records, wills, and parish registers, 1600s-1900s. Clerks abbreviated freely and spelling wandered, so expect variant wordings around it.
Do these old terms still matter for family history?+
Yes, a single word can settle a relationship. Relict names a widow, et ux hides an unnamed wife, natural son points at a parent. The words are dry, but what they encode about a family is not.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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