Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Life After Death

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Female Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-Century England

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

  • 471 Accesses

Abstract

Previous chapters have explored the business lives of female entrepreneurs: how women came to be in trade, the locations that they traded from, the business strategies that they employed and the relationships between family and friends that bound all these experiences together. This chapter explores how the women came to leave trade, how they secured their financial future and what happened to their assets after their death. Central to this chapter is an examination of probate records of the 100 female business owners from Birmingham and Leeds. This will enable the composition of their financial portfolios to be examined and their methods of estate distribution to be analysed. Research by R.J. Morris into the investments of middle-class men argues that the contents of investment portfolios, and the way that they were distributed on death, can be seen as tangible manifestations of middle-class male status and behaviour. This chapter will use the probate records of the 100 female business owners to demonstrate that the estate distribution methods and behaviours observed by Morris were not the sole preserve of male testators, and that women were able to utilise the exact same methods to provide for their families and cement their middle-class status.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women and Property.

  2. 2.

    K. Grannum & N. Taylor, Wills and Other Probate Records, (London: Kew, 2004), p. 59.

  3. 3.

    The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), Thursday, January 21, 1858; Issue 6745.

  4. 4.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal in an Industrial Town 1800–1857’ in Urban Fortunes: Property and Inheritance in the Town 1700–1900, J. Stobart & A. Owens [ed.], (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 79–108, p. 85.

  5. 5.

    K. Grannum & N. Taylor, Wills and Other Probate Records, p. 80.

  6. 6.

    The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), Thursday, January 21, 1858; Issue 6745.

  7. 7.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal, p. 93.

  8. 8.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 94.

  9. 9.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 91.

  10. 10.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 91.

  11. 11.

    Inheritance, Families and the Market in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain (Funded by the Philomathia Foundation and the Isaac Newton Trust).

  12. 12.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, pp. 92–3.

  13. 13.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Corbett.

  14. 14.

    Last Will and Testament of Harriet Kirby.

  15. 15.

    D.R. Green, A. Owens, C. Swaine & C. van Lieshout, ‘Assets of the Dead’, p. 70.

  16. 16.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 79.

  17. 17.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 98.

  18. 18.

    S. D’Cruze, ‘The Middling Sort in Eighteenth Century Colchester: Independence, Social Relations and the Community Broker’ in J. Barry & M. Brooks [Eds] A Middling Sort of People, (Basingstoke, 1994), pp. 181–2.

  19. 19.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 101.

  20. 20.

    Pigot’s Directory of Birmingham & its Environment, 1829; Morris’s Birmingham Directory, 1862.

  21. 21.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Wasdell, proved at Birmingham on 14 March 1862.

  22. 22.

    Last Will and Testament of Bridget Walsh, proved at Birmingham on 19 January 1887.

  23. 23.

    J. Stobart, ‘Social and Geographical Contexts of Property Transmission in the Eighteenth-Century’ in Urban Fortunes, J. Stobart & A. Owens [eds], pp. 108–130, p. 119.

  24. 24.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Ella, proved at Birmingham on 24 May 1882.

  25. 25.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Ella.

  26. 26.

    Last Will and Testament of Eliza Rebecca Dransfield, proved at Birmingham on 6 September 1912.

  27. 27.

    Last Will and Testament of Eleanor Sinkinson, proved at Birmingham on 27 February 1884.

  28. 28.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Alford, proved at Birmingham on 15 May 1883.

  29. 29.

    Last Will and Testament of Jane Young, proved at Wakefield on 2 May 1864.

  30. 30.

    M.B. Combs, ‘A Measure of Legal Independence: The 1870 Married Woman’s Property Act and the Portfolio Allocations of British Wives’ in The Journal of Economic History, Vol 65, No 4, (Dec, 2005), pp. 1028–1057.

  31. 31.

    D.R. Green, A. Owens, C. Swaine & C. van Lieshout, ‘Assets of the Dead’, p. 73.

  32. 32.

    Last Will and Testament of Sarah Swale, proved at Wakefield on 30 May 1879.

  33. 33.

    Last Will and Testament of Caroline Robbins, proved at Birmingham on 16 March 1897.

  34. 34.

    D.R. Green, A. Owens, C. Swaine & C. van Lieshout, ‘Assets of the Dead’, p. 68.

  35. 35.

    Last Will and Testament of Hannah Aston, proved at Birmingham on 19 May 1906.

  36. 36.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, pp. 207–9.

  37. 37.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, p. 206.

  38. 38.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, p. 221.

  39. 39.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, p. 217.

  40. 40.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, p. 217.

  41. 41.

    G.G. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability’, p. 217.

  42. 42.

    C. Hall, White, Male and Middle Class: Explorations in Feminism and History, (Oxford, 1992), p. 177.

  43. 43.

    A. Owens, ‘Property, Will Making and Estate Disposal’, p. 93.

  44. 44.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, pp. 100–101.

  45. 45.

    Last Will and Testament of Grace Howard, proved at Wakefield on 3 March 1881.

  46. 46.

    Last Will and Testament of Catherine Mackey Bowen, proved at Birmingham on 17 June 1893.

  47. 47.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Ann Fourness, proved at Wakefield on 21 August 1888.

  48. 48.

    R.C. Michie, ‘Gamblers, Fools, Victims or Wizards?’, pp. 156–183, p. 164.

  49. 49.

    Last Will and Testament of Harriet Ann Eccleston, proved at Birmingham on 9 January 1872.

  50. 50.

    Last Will and Testament of Jane Traies, proved at Exeter on 25 February 1887.

  51. 51.

    D.R. Green, ‘Independent Women Wealth and Wills in Nineteenth Century London’ in Urban Fortunes, J. Stobart & A. Owens [eds], pp. 195–222, p. 219.

  52. 52.

    National Portrait Gallery Directory of Suppliers Online http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-suppliers.php - accessed July 2015.

  53. 53.

    Last Will and Testament of Penelope Gore, proved at Birmingham on 7 May 1888.

  54. 54.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Ann Sheffield, proved at Birmingham on 12 October 1887.

  55. 55.

    Last Will and Testament of Mary Ann Sheffield, proved at Birmingham on 12 October 1887.

  56. 56.

    Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham, 1888.

  57. 57.

    D.R. Green, ‘Independent Women’, p. 200.

  58. 58.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women & Property, p. 148.

  59. 59.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Corbett, proved at Birmingham on 6 April 1883.

  60. 60.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Mary Gough, proved at Birmingham on 29 November 1906.

  61. 61.

    R.J. Morris, Men, Women & Property, p. 148.

  62. 62.

    Last Will and Testament of Jane Traies, proved at Principal Registry, London, 25 February 1887.

  63. 63.

    R. K. Webb, ‘Maccall, William (1812–1888)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17373, accessed 26 July 2012].

  64. 64.

    D.R. Green, ‘Independent Women’, p. 217.

  65. 65.

    D.R. Green, ‘Independent Women’, p. 217.

  66. 66.

    Last Will and Testament of Eleanor Sinkinson, proved at Birmingham on 27 February 1884.

  67. 67.

    Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth Ann Hulme, proved at Birmingham on 10 November 1885.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Jennifer Aston

Authors
  1. Jennifer Aston
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Aston, J. (2016). Life After Death. In: Female Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-Century England. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30880-7_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30880-7_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30879-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30880-7

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation