A young English gentleman, tired of the misery of single life (1888)

Matrimonial1888

YOUNG ENGLISH GENTLEMAN (30), tired of the misery of single life, wishes to end same, and with that view desires to correspond with a loving, fond, good-tempered, good-looking Australian girl with a view to MATRIMONY. Money no object, as he has ample means. Address, with photo and full particulars, “Herbert,” G.P.O., Adelaide.

The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, March 26, 1888, p. 1. View the original page on Trove, National Library of Australia

In plain English

A 30-year-old Englishman, tired of being single, wants to put an end to it, and would like to write to a loving, affectionate, good-tempered, good-looking Australian woman with a view to marriage. Her money does not matter, he says, because he has plenty of his own. Replies, with a photograph and full details, go to “Herbert” at the General Post Office in Adelaide.

Who wrote it, and to whom

Newspaper	The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, South Australia
Date	March 26, 1888, page 1
Section	Matrimonial
Written by	A man, 30, signing Herbert
Addressed to	An Australian girl
Where	Replies, with a photograph, to “Herbert,” G.P.O., Adelaide

Context

The Express and Telegraph was an Adelaide newspaper, published from 1867 to 1922. Its front page carried advertisements, and among them, in 1888 and 1889, a short column headed Matrimonial. Writers signed with a pen name and had replies sent to a post office, to be collected there.

He describes himself as English and asks for an Australian girl. In 1888 the Australian colonies were still separate; they federated in 1901. Where several men in the upper-class column of a Toronto marriage paper two years earlier asked for a wife with means, he says money is no object. The Matrimonial column held two ads that day; his is printed below one from a bachelor in fair circumstances who signs himself Lonely. For where people in Adelaide post personal ads now, see our guide to personal ads in Australia.

In the Personals Dictionary

With a view to matrimony Of means General delivery

Tagged

correspondence matrimony written by men

How to cite this ad

“A young English gentleman, tired of the misery of single life.” Matrimonial advertisement, The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, South Australia), March 26, 1888, p. 1. Transcribed in The Personals Archive, AseeksB, https://www.aseeksb.com/archive/1888-express-and-telegraph-young-english-gentleman.html.

Public domain: published in 1888.

Transcribed from the page image on Trove and checked against the original; spelling and punctuation are as printed, and words broken across lines are rejoined. One letter damaged in the print, in “single,” is restored. The printer’s code at the end of the ad is left out.

← 1886: A widow of 40 with $300 saved and a small store 1888: A bachelor in fair circumstances, signing himself Lonely →

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