Mr. Darcy Was a Second-Class Citizen - Moorgate Books (2024)

Fitzwilliam Darcy was the handsome, wealthy gentleman who fell in love with the sparkling Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth’s mother was confounded and amazed to hear that her daughter would marry a man of fortune, especially as she at first thought Darcy was “a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing, [being] so high and so conceited that there was no enduring him.”1Now envisioning her daughter’s great wealth and status, Mrs. Bennet tells Elizabeth: “How rich and great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! . . . A house in town! Everything that is charming! . . . Ten thousand a year, and very likely more! ’Tis as good as a Lord!”1

Ignoring for the moment Austen’s extravagant use of the exclamation point, which modern writers are advised to use sparingly, a question arises: If Darcy was as good as Lord, and yet not a Lord, what exactly was his status in society of that time?

Darcy Was a Gentleman

In Regency Britain a man gained a sense of his place in society through his birth, property, occupation and social rank.2He knew precisely on which step of the social ladder he stood, and everybody judged his status at a glance by evaluating his clothing and manner of speaking. It was not a perfect system, for a penniless conman might pass himself off as a gentleman by dressing in a form-fitting morning coat worn over pantaloons tucked into tasseled hussar boots. As Douglas Hay and Nicolas Rogers put it: “The line dividing gentlemen from all those below was of critical importance in public and private life.”3

Mr. Darcy Was a Second-Class Citizen - Moorgate Books (1)

Beau Brummell was the arbiter of men’s fashion during the Regency Era (CC public domain Mark 1.0, found on Wikipedia)

Darcy was rightly called a gentleman, being an educated man of good breeding and at all times well dressed, perhaps in the style of the well-known socialite and fashion-setter, Beau Brummell, shown at left. Darcy was a landowner, having inherited Pemberley—a beautiful estate situated in Derbyshire—on his father’s death. He had no occupation: he was not a civil servant, merchant or banker; nor was he a farmer, artisan or shopkeeper. He lived on the income obtained from his estate. Being a gentleman of property made him a desirable marriage partner.

Darcy Was Not a Titled Gentleman

Darcy was not a peer. He was not a duke, marquess, earl, viscount or baron, and therefore had not inherited a title. Nor is there evidence that he was a baronet. Baronets hold a hereditary title, which can pass from father to son, but they are not peers. Beneath baronets in the social order are knights. Sir William Lucas, Charlotte’s father, was originally in trade in the village of Meryton, made a sizable fortune and rose to the knighthood, a fact of which he was immensely proud.1 If Darcy had been knighted, the Bennet family, all of Meryton and even his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, seem unaware ofthe fact, for nobody mentions it—and one would think Mrs. Bennet would winkle the fact out of somebody.

Was Darcy an esquire? There is no evidence that he himself held this honor or that he was the son of a knight or served as a Justice of the Peace. (Click herefor a list of Debrett’s precedence among Gentlemen; scroll down the list to the bottom where “Esquires” and “Gentlemen” can be found.) Regardless, Darcy had no titled rank, but he claimed one important connection: he was the grandson of an earl on his mother’s side.

Darcy’s Status according to the 1801 Census

The first formal study of the population of England, Scotland and Wales was undertaken in 1801. Its findings provide some guidance about Darcy’s status. The average annual income of the 287 families that comprised the peerage in 1801 was £8,000 (Table 1). Thus, Darcy’s annual income of £10,000 slightly exceeded the average income of the nobility.3Moreover, his average annual income was nearly four times greater than that of eminent merchants, a category that likely included industrialists, manufacturers, and importers like the nabobs who achieved immense wealth importing tea from India. In Pride and Prejudice,Darcy’s friend Mr. Bingley inherited a fortune of £100,000 from his father, who might very well have been counted as an eminent merchant.

Table 1. Average Annual Income of the Top 1% of thePopulation of Great Britain Recorded in the 1801 Census3-5

[table id=1 /]

By this reckoning, Darcy’s annual income stood alongside the incomes of the Prince Regent’s family and the Duke of Devonshire! Of course, the figures for average annual incomes in Table 1 tell us nothing about the range of incomes whose average equalled £8,000. Thedata, for instance, don’t separate the Royal Family’s income from the income of peers. Thus, if the Royal Family reported an average annual income of, say, £30,000 in 1801, then dozens of families classified as “peers” must have reported an income of £5,000 to £7,000 to achieve an overall average annual income of £8,000. This makes sense, for few among the nobility would have an income close to that achieved by the Royal Family. Considering these figures, Darcy’s annual income was handsome, indeed.

Darcy’s Status and the 1811 Census

The powers behind the 1801 census developed better and more explicit questions for the 1811 census.6-8Table 2 shows the average annual income of the top classes in Great Britain and Ireland in 1811.

Table 2. Average Annual Income of the Royal Families, theNobility and the Gentry Recorded in the 1811 Census6-8

[table id=2 /]

In this analysis, the highest order or First Class in society countedRoyalty in the top tier, of which the families of the King and Prince Regent had average annual incomes exceeding £140,000. The nobility, also counted as First Class, had an average annual income of£10,000.8 The Second Class citizens had incomes even lower, but still sufficient to support a comfortable lifestyle by early 19th-century standards. Not shown in Table 2 are average incomes for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh (or Lowest) Classes or for members of the Army and Navy, whose average annual income might range from a low of £10 for paupers to £130 for milliners, tailors and mantua-makers and £400 for judges, barristers, attorneys, clerks and the like. Based on this class system, Darcy would have been classified as a Second Class citizen, even though his income was akin to that of the nobility.

Questions about Darcy’s Income

The most interesting aspect of the data in Table 2 is that most gentlemen and ladies living on incomes had an average annual income of £800. Darcy earned more than 12 times as much but was still a Second Class citizen and not a Lord. By what means did he earn so much income? Of course, much of his income would have been derived from Pemberley, but how did he amass a fortune that placed his annual income on par with that of a peer? This question begs another: How good was Jane Austen at estimating a gentleman’s income? Feel free to post answers and suppositions related to these questions.

Sources:
1Austen J. Pride and Prejudice. Kindle ed. Locations: 19455 (chapter 3), 19497 (chapter 5) and 23987 (chapter 59).
2Porter R. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. London: Penguin Books, 1982, p. 48.
3Hay D, Rogers N. Eighteenth-Century English Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 18, 21.
4The 1801 Census(description only). Accessed August 6, 2014.
5A Vision of Britain through Time: 1801 Census(summary table only). Accessed August 6, 2014.
6The 1811 Census. Accessed August 6, 2014.
7A Vision of Britain through Time: 1811 Census. Accessed August 6, 2014.
8Colquhoun P. A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire, in Every Quarter of the World, including the East Indies: The Rise and Progress of the Funding System Explained. (London, 1814), pp. 106-107 (PDF pp. 124-125), pp. 124-125 (PDF pp. 142-143).

Mr. Darcy Was a Second-Class Citizen - Moorgate Books (2024)

FAQs

What rank of nobility is Mr. Darcy? ›

Darcy is not actually a titled nobleman, but he is one of the wealthiest members of the landed gentry — the same legal class that Elizabeth's much poorer family belongs to. While Darcy's sense of social superiority offends people, it also promotes some of his better traits.

Was Mr. Darcy a member of the Ton? ›

We finally agreed that Darcy was not a member of the Ton despite his wealth and occupied a lower social position and that he probably was descended from "the wrong side of the blanket" but having found this forum, perhaps someone more learned could offer their opinion.

What is the age gap between Darcy and Elizabeth? ›

So Miss Darcy was then around 20, while she was more than 10 years younger than Mr. Darcy, so Mr. Darcy was at that time 30 years old, still single.

How is Mr. Darcy described in the books? ›

He is fairly tall and handsome, but his demeanor is unfriendly, aloof, and unapproachable. He has a sister, Georgiana, who adores him, and the feeling is mutual. It seems safe to assume that Darcy is a private man and that his upbringing has highly influenced his opinions of those around him.

Who is richer, Mr. Darcy or Lady Catherine? ›

Lady Catherine de Bourgh's financial status is equal or slightly better than Mr. Darcy's financial status. If Mr. Darcy had a fortune that was considerably lower than Lady Catherine's fortune, she would not be so eager for Mr.

Was Mr. Darcy upper class? ›

Mr. Darcy is a proud and arrogant man, particularly to those that he considers of lower social status. It is suggested that he is a member of the old Anglo-Norman aristocracy, as indicated by his own name as well as that of his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Is Mr. Darcy autistic? ›

Surprisingly, the last autistic character on Bottomer's list is Mr. Darcy. Whereas scholars see Darcy as shy, Bottomer believes that it “is not pride but subtle autism that is the major reason for Darcy's frequent silences, awkward behaviour at social events” (111). The analysis of Mr.

Why was Mr. Darcy so rich? ›

Mr. Darcy inherited land. A lot of it. His family probably acquired this land hundreds of years before, and it's been making them rich ever since.

How wealthy were the Bennets? ›

For Mr. Bennet, who had £2,000 a year, the retail price index method gives him an annual income of approximately $200,000, while GDP per capita gives him an annual income of approximately $3,000,000.

How many children did Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have? ›

Darcy's Daughters is written as a sequel to Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. It features the five daughters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet – aged 21 to 16 – as they navigate London society in the absence of their parents, who have embarked on a diplomatic post to Constantinople.

How old was Jane Bennet when she married? ›

Bennet, and thus the older sister of Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia Bennet. She falls in love with Charles Bingley, and they later marry. She is twenty-two years old.

How old is Lizzy in Pride and Prejudice? ›

Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet) is the second of the Bennet daughters, being 20 years old at the beginning of the novel and 21 by the end.

Why did Mr. Darcy say Elizabeth was barely tolerable? ›

Bingley asks him to dance and suggests Elizabeth as being suitable, to which Darcy responds, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me”– which, of course suggests that he thinks of himself highly enough to deserve a woman of some elevated standard of beauty.

Why did Darcy love Elizabeth? ›

The “easy playfulness” of her manners is particularly appealing to Darcy, who, as we know, enjoys that quality in Bingley. He is attracted, in other words, not to her mere physical appearance as a sexual object but to the qualities expressed by that appearance, especially her animation.

How much is Mr. Darcy worth today? ›

Numbers pop up all the time in Jane Austen's novels. Though calculating purchasing power for the early 1800s has no exact science yet through some exploring I found out that he may worth around USD 966,966 in present time. Yeah Darcy was loaded!

What rank are the Bennets? ›

Elizabeth Bennet and her family are part of the gentry class. They are nobility but on the lower end of the social hierarchy.

What rank was Mr. Wickham? ›

His rank of ensign in the regular army was the lowest and could be held by boys of 15, which Breihan and Caplan see as a sign of Darcy feeling that "enough was enough!" Wickham's career path in the North, where he might at any point be drawn into war, may reflect a desire for atonement and honest service.

Was Mr. Darcy a viscount? ›

No. He is simply Mr. Darcy. His grandfather was an earl, but the earl was his mother's father, so the title did not pass through to her son.

Is Mr. Darcy wealthy in Pride and Prejudice? ›

Historians estimate that the average holding of wealth of the top 1% of households in Jane Austen's day was £100,000, and thus Mr. Darcy, with a fortune of £200,000, was at the 99.75 percentile of British society; only perhaps 5,000 households were richer (DeLong 37).

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