Since the question has been answered, I’ll tell you a real life story. My mother got pregnant with me out of wedlock in 1975 India. My aunt’s fiance found out, and broke off the engagement, and told everyone in their small community, including all of the marriage brokers, that this was a house of whores, essentially.
My aunt never got married. Thankfully, while dated, India was modern enough for her to work and support herself and not live off other people.
And that is why they had breach of marriage contracts. Exactly for shit like this.
But what about the cases I mentioned where nobody else even knew about it? Nobody knew doodley squat about Miss Arabella Trefoil’s supposed engagement before the ‘suitor’ paid her a large amount of hush money. I don’t see how if that had gone to trial, there would be any damages.
She was probably rejecting other opportunities in the meantime, either by turning down suitors overtly or avoiding social engagements where she might be paired up with someone. Try explaining to a guy how she rejected him months ago as a suitor but now has changed her mind, and see how well that goes over.
That sounds more like blackmail. I.e., “pay me off or I’ll drag your name through the mud, and I have the love letters to prove it”. Blackmail doesn’t really require you to have any legal merit to your case…
For a 20th century fictional example, there was an episode of “Gomer Pyle” about a woman who would trick men into engagements (after one date) and then demand money to avoid breach of promise suits. Looks like the same thing happened to Barney Fife Barney on the Rebound | Mayberry Wiki | Fandom
I suppose, too, that in high(er) society, most people were expected to and did get married at a certian age; so dangling for a year or two then trying to get back into the market meant that a lot of your contemporaries were already taken - especially for a woman, where the tradition seems to be more that a woman will marry the same age or an older man; the next year’s crop may not be interested in her… If most of the good ones are gone by then, you have blown a lot of opportunities (so to speak) by waiting for the wrong person and then being dumped.
Anyway, the legal regime during the bulk of the history of the action was such that a woman’s promise wasn’t of the same class of interest. Maybe that works as consideration even so, though. Hmm.
In return for his promise to marry her, the woman promises not to consider offers from other suitors; she takes herself off the market. In a time when a 25 year old woman was considered an old maid, this could result make it difficult to find a suitable husband if she is dumped.
