Gentleman Jack

[saveforthat]

Did anyone watch the first of series 2 tonight? What did you think?

Snd why shouldn't Anne's sisters children (if she has some) inherit the estate?!

If I was marianne I'd speak to a lawyer about that!

It is complete double standards that Anne can stride about doing whatever she likes but God forbid any one else do what they want to do.

Yes and squander money going to Paris

Did Marianne ever marry in real life?

Did Marianne ever marry in real life?

Spoiler...

Sadly, no! She eventually moved back to the family estate in Market Weighton, which she inherited when their father died (Tim West's character). However, she did live much longer than either her sister or sister-in-law and was well in her 80s when she died!

It did make me laugh when Anne said 'if and when I die'

Marianne was like if?? 😂

I am a bit lost about women's right to own/inherit property in the 18th/19th century. In Bridgerton the women couldn't inherit but Ann Lister does. Also did it vary in the US vs UK?

Women could inherit property as long as the property itself wasn't tied up in a title or entail that prevented a woman inheriting. Marian wasn't going to inherit Shibden because Anne had written a will leaving it to Ann Walker. If Ann hadn't written a will Marian probably would have inherited, just as Ann Walker and her sister inherited from their brother when he died. As it was, Ann Walker inherited and Shibden, along with Crow's Nest and her other properties all eventually went to her nephew.

So her Scottish BIL who is passively aggressively making it more difficult for her and her sister to divide their estate because he wants it all for his son to inherit. Is actually jeopardising his son nearly doubling his eventual inheritance. As the 'marriage' led to his family getting the Lister fortune rather than Anne getting the Walker's.

@Toddlerteaplease

Think the eyebrows are based on this (truly fucking awful) portrait done by one of her friends (can't remember which one). In her diaries she mentions she is pleased with it, but her family thought it was not good; her friend worked on it some more and then everyone agreed it was a very good likeness. I hope not, because if it is what she looked like I'm not seeing the attraction myself!

In another (more professional) portrait of her, she also has fairly distinct (though not quite so striking) eyebrows in comparison to portraits of other ladies at the time.

Wow that portrait is baaaadddd. She looks like the bodged painting here: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/octogenarians-hilarious-f_n_1821389

In Jane Austen novels they often marry clergy who were of a different social status

I believe second or third sons of ‘families of good standing’ joined the clergy. The strict class social order was grim. Anne was v contradictory prepared to defy social convention regarding her own love life but worked within the social order of that time in many areas. The tv series has shown this by writing the storyline of Marian marrying someone AL believed unsuitable and Anne being so cruel and hypocritical about it.

As has been written here in real life Marian was apparently engaged at one time to a John Abbot but ultimately didn’t marry. I was also pleased to read she inherited her father’s home. In real life Anne L’s father didn’t live at Shibden as in the tv series. Anne lived with her aunt and uncle in Shibden.

If Ann hadn't written a will Marian probably would have inherited

I think that would have probably not happened as the will Anne organised gave Ann Walker a life interest in Shibden and at her death Anne’s paternal cousins would inherit Shibden, as indeed happened. I don’t know why AL clearly never intended to leave it to Marian. Perhaps unfairly or not she didn’t think M would look after the estate well.

Just to clarify Ann Walker’s nephew inherited the Walker estate but not Shibden which as said went to Anne Lister’s cousins.

@Wanderingowl - thank you for that detailed explanation.

I get confused with all the lads with the same accent. There's Thomas the pig farmer murderer bloke, the older one at shibden who nearly married the French maid and at least 2 or 3 footmen type lads all looking and sounding the same 😫.
Thought Ann was horrible to Marian about marrying that wool stapler.

I really enjoyed the first series. This one, not so much. I watched the first 3 episodes, and then bailed. I have lost interest in it. I can't articulate very well exactly why. It was just not holding my attention.

Me to, they all look and sound the same!!

Doesn't help when one of the footmen is called Joseph but Anne decided to start calling him George when they returned from Paris - he seems to get called both at the moment!!

Really didn’t enjoy it - I’ll get my coat ……

You need a very good memory to connect the carriage accident and last weeks episode. It was ages ago!

Did the French maid have a baby or did I imagine that?

She was pregnant but didn't have a baby in the end.

I have tried to continue watching but I just can’t get past Suranne’s ridiculous accent. Her annunciation is just… odd. It’s like someone deliberately trying to sound posh but failing. I can’t work out what she’s basing it on. You’d expect, and forgive, a hint of Northerness - no one else speaks remotely like her in the drama. It’s not as if it’s a result of trying to sound ‘masculine’. It truly is bizarre. And the dashing around with the clappy, percussive sound bursts is getting on my nerves. My DP and I have given up on it.

I just wish French and Saunders could do a skit, with Dawn French striding about every thirty seconds and Jennifer Saunders all twee and simpering. It would be an absolute gift if they did a similar treatment as the one they did with the House of Elliot - wasn’t there a character called Jack in that?!

it’s a shame because as someone said earlier lesbian representation in mainstream drama is few and far between. And Lister is undoubtedly a fascinating and intriguing character.

I assumed that the odd accent (to my ears, a mix of RP and Northern) is due to Lister's having been educated.

I assumed the accent is because she's delibertaly being affected due to being such a social climber... she is the Hyacinth Bucket of 19th century Yorkshire. This is the woman who won't let her sister marry into 'trade'!

Funny how we all respond so different. I like the dashing around she does, conveys her packed life and her annunciation went unnoticed by me.