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This article explores the ways in which young single women in Lyon’s working neighborhoods mobilized their community and the legal system to manage their relationships with young men in a world of asymmetrical gender relations. It draws on material that I call the “archive of reproduction” (public records of usually undocumented matters) to reveal the young couples’ relationship histories from their perspectives and those of witnesses. It demonstrates how women could mitigate the impacts of men’s unpredictability as sexual and emotional partners. Young women (usually) had the support of their communities, clergy and court as they held young men accountable for the reproductive consequences of their sexual activity. The dynamics of this rich sexual culture illuminate the stakes of Old Regime norms about intimacy for young people and the church, state and working neighborhoods.