On the relative Ages of Husbands and Wives whose Marriages are fruitful

Extract

A number of the schedules collected by Mr. Ansell of the National Life Assurance Society in 1871, and from which were deduced the interesting results contained in his Statistics of Families in the Upper and Professional Classes, were, with the permission of the Directors of that Society, lent to Mr. Sprague, who wished to extract from them certain information bearing upon an investigation he was making. These schedules had been filled up by members of the clerical, medical, and legal professions, and by a large number of other gentlemen and noblemen in England and Wales; and they contain, in addition to full particulars as to the children of the marriage, the dates of the births and the marriage of the parents, and their state at marriage, whether bachelor or widower, spinster or widow. Mr. Ansell has not investigated the law which the ages of the wives follow, when a number of men of a given age marry; and at Mr. Sprague's suggestion, and upon principles indicated by him, I undertook this novel enquiry.