Gilded Age British Etiquette – The Lady

There are nowadays plenty of spinsters—and young spinsters, too —who insist on being addressed as “Mrs.;” and at one or two places in Sussex, curiously enough, the married lady is “Miss” and the unmarried lady receives the title of “Mrs.” – An advertising page from an 1892 “The Lady”

Miss or Mrs.? 

All women out of their teens are entitled to be styled “Mistress.” “Miss” is merely a diminutive, and is properly confined to young girls, just as “Master” is commonly confined to school boys. In the days of Pope, “Mrs.” was the common appellation of unmarried ladies. Sir Walter Scott, too, speaks of Joanna (unmarried) as Mrs. Joanna Baillie. There are nowadays plenty of spinsters—and young spinsters, too —who insist on being addressed as “Mrs.;” and at one or two places in Sussex, curiously enough, the married lady is “Miss” and the unmarried lady receives the title of “Mrs.” 

The same custom is found in many parts of Ireland. The form “Mrs.” was at one time applied indifferently to persons at all ages. Among servants generally, the cook, whether married or single, expects to be called “Mrs.” So do housekeepers, though unmarried. In point of fact, Mrs. or Mistress is a title of respect that the plain “Miss” is devoid of. Why actresses who are married women should seek to disguise that fact by allowing the misleading prefix of “Miss” to be attached to their names is a mystery that admits of no intelligible explanation.—The Lady, 1892

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