Skip to main content

Locating Female Business Owners in the Historiography

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

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

  • 508 Accesses

Abstract

On 13 May 1872, a sixty-six-year-old woman named Ann Buckley died at her home in Leeds, Yorkshire. She left behind an estate valued at £14,000, which included paintings and prints, musical instruments, a warehouse property on Greek Street in the centre of Leeds, four trust funds each worth £2500 and the ‘capital share and interest in the business of Cap Manufacturers and Clothiers now carried on by me in co-partnership with my sons’. Ann’s late husband John Buckley had established the business in 1834 and operated it until his death in December 1850. After John’s death, Ann became the sole proprietor and although she employed her sons Joshua and John Camm in the business from this date, and eventually made them partners in 1856, Ann remained the senior (and only named) partner in the business until her death in 1872. Ann’s last will and testament reveals that in addition to her capital stake in ‘Ann Buckley and Sons’, she was also the sole owner of the firm’s large warehouse building on Greek Street, where the business had relocated in the mid-1860s. Upon her death, Ann used her capital stake in Buckley and Sons, and her warehouse property on Greek Street, to secure the financial future of her two sons and business partners and her two surviving daughters Eliza and Amelia.

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

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
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.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Buckley, proved at Wakefield on 1 November 1872.

  2. 2.

    Leeds Directory 1834; The Bradford Observer (Bradford, England), Thursday, December 19, 1850; p. 8; Issue 878. 19th Century British Library Newspapers Part II.

  3. 3.

    Gillbanks Leeds and Neighbourhood Directory & Gazetteer, 1856.

  4. 4.

    1871 Census Return Class: RG10; Piece: 4560; Folio: 132; Page: 9; GSU roll: 847140.

  5. 5.

    Last Will and Testament of Ann Buckley, proved at Wakefield on 1 November 1872; Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire Part 2, 1867.

  6. 6.

    1861 Census Return Class: RG9; Piece: 3387; Folio: 31; Page: 24; GSU roll: 543124; Last Will and Testament of Ann Buckley, proved at Wakefield on 1 November 1872.

  7. 7.

    For more detailed examination of some of the earliest female economic historians see M. Berg, ‘The First Women Economic Historians’ in The Economic History Review, XLV, 2 (1992), pp. 308–329.

  8. 8.

    A. Clark, The Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century, (London, 1992 ed).

  9. 9.

    I. Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution 1750–1850, (London, 1969 ed).

  10. 10.

    I. Pinchbeck, Women Workers, pp. 287–290.

  11. 11.

    A. Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women in History’ in The Historical Journal, 36, 2, (June 1993), pp. 383–414, p. 411.

  12. 12.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women, p. 9.

  13. 13.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women: N. Phillips, Women in Business: A. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship.

  14. 14.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 39.

  15. 15.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 20.

  16. 16.

    T. Koditschek, Class Formation and Urban Industrial Society: Bradford 1750–1850, (Cambridge, 1990) p. 165; D. Wahrman, Imagining the Middle-classes: The Political Representation of Class in Britain c. 1780–1840, (Cambridge, 1995), p. 252.

  17. 17.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 32.

  18. 18.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 22.

  19. 19.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 22.

  20. 20.

    J. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, (Massechuessetts, 2005 English edition), p. 30.

  21. 21.

    J.L. Cohen, ‘Critical Social Theory and Feminist Critiques: The Debate with Jurgen Habermas’ in Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, J. Meehan [ed.], (London, 1995), p. 57.

  22. 22.

    J.B. Landes, ‘The Public and the Private Sphere: A Feminist Reconsideration’ in Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, J. Meehan [ed.] (London, 1995), p. 98.

  23. 23.

    N. Fraser, ‘What’s Critical about Critical Theory’ in Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, J. Meehan [ed.] (London, 1995), p. 23.

  24. 24.

    L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, p. 272.

  25. 25.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 26.

  26. 26.

    L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, pp. 280–282.

  27. 27.

    S.O. Rose, Limited Livelihoods; gender and class in nineteenth-century England, (Berkley, 1992), p. 100.

  28. 28.

    L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, p. 279.

  29. 29.

    A. Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres?’, p. 402.

  30. 30.

    S. O. Rose, Limited Livelihoods; Other examples of historians using the separate spheres framework include: P. Hudson, ‘Women and Industrialisation’ in Women’s History: Britain 1850–1945, An Introduction, J. Purvis [ed.] (London, 2002 edition); J. Lewis, Women in England 1870–1950: Sexual Divisions and Social Change (London, 1984); S. Fredman, Women and the Law, (Oxford, 1997); R.J. Morris, Class, Sect and Party: The Making of the British Middle-class, Leeds 1820–1850, (Manchester, 1990); L. Young, Middle-class Culture in the Nineteenth-century; America, Australia and Britain, (Basingstoke, 2003); R. Price, ‘Historiography, narrative and the Nineteenth-century’, in The Journal of British Studies, Vol 35, No 2, Revisionisms, (April 1996), pp. 220–256.

  31. 31.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women, pp. 3–5.

  32. 32.

    N. Phillips, Women in Business, p. 242.

  33. 33.

    A.C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 11, p. 130.

  34. 34.

    The marriage certificate of John Buckley and Ann Lodge from Tuesday 27 July 1840 shows that whilst John and Ann could sign their names, neither father could.

  35. 35.

    The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), Wednesday, October 17, 1866; Issue 8894.

  36. 36.

    G. Crossick & H.G. Haupt, The Petit Bourgeoisie in Europe, 1780–1914: Enterprise, Family and Independence, (London, 1998), p. 127.

  37. 37.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 169.

  38. 38.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 393.

  39. 39.

    F. Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy in nineteenth-century England, (Oxford, 1980).

  40. 40.

    J. Hannam, ‘Women and Politics’ in Women’s History: Britain 1850–1945, An Introduction, J. Purvis [ed.] (London, 2002 edition), p. 221; R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 28.

  41. 41.

    P. Hollis, Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government 1865–1914, (Oxford, 1987), pp. 12–13.

  42. 42.

    A. Kidd & D. Nicholls, ‘Introduction’ in The Making of the British Middle-Class, A. Kidd & D. Nicholls [eds], (Sutton, 1998), p. xxv.

  43. 43.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 28; L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, pp. 357–380.

  44. 44.

    L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, p. 446.

  45. 45.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women; A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship.

  46. 46.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women, p. 173.

  47. 47.

    A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 134.

  48. 48.

    A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 132.

  49. 49.

    A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 19.

  50. 50.

    A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 83.

  51. 51.

    N. Phillips, Women in Business, p. 68.

  52. 52.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women, p. 137.

  53. 53.

    N. Phillips, Women in Business, p. 254.

  54. 54.

    J. Duffy, ‘A Surplus and Depressed Minority?’.

  55. 55.

    A. Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres’, p. 386.

  56. 56.

    S.I. Lewis, Unexceptional Women: Female Proprietors in Mid Nineteenth-Century Albany, New York, 1830–1885, (Columbus, 2009); E. Sparks, Capital Intentions: Female Proprietors in San Francisco 1850–1920, (Chapel Hill, 2006).

  57. 57.

    E. Sparks, Capital Intentions, p. 203.

  58. 58.

    S. Nenadic, ‘Gender and the Rhetoric of Business Success’, pp. 269–288, p. 270.

  59. 59.

    S. Nenadic, ‘Gender and the Rhetoric of Business Success’, p. 272.

  60. 60.

    J. Duffy, A Surplus and Depressed Minority?; A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship.

  61. 61.

    J. Humphries, ‘Women and Paid Work’, in Women’s History: Britain 1850–1945, An Introduction, J. Purvis [ed.] (London, 2002 edition), pp. 85–106, p. 88.

  62. 62.

    J.W. Scott, ‘Language, Gender and Working Class History’ in Class, P. Joyce [ed.], (Oxford, 1995), pp. 154–161, p. 160.

  63. 63.

    M. Casson, The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory, (Oxford, 1982), p. 347.

  64. 64.

    L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes, pp. 21–3.

  65. 65.

    M. Casson et al., ‘Introduction’ in The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship, M. Casson, B. Yeung, A. Basu & N. Wadeson [eds], (OUP, 2008), pp. 1–32, p. 8.

  66. 66.

    M. Ricketts, ‘Theories of Entrepreneurship: Historical Development and Critical Assessment’ in The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship, pp. 33–58, p. 34.

  67. 67.

    Casson et al., ‘Introduction’, p. 3.

  68. 68.

    Casson et al., ‘Introduction’, p. 3.

  69. 69.

    M. Casson, The Entrepreneur, p. 23.

  70. 70.

    M. Casson, Entrepreneurship and Business Culture, (Aldershot, 1995), p. 86.

  71. 71.

    M. Casson, The Entrepreneur, pp. 329–30.

  72. 72.

    M. Casson, Entrepreneurship, p. 86.

  73. 73.

    M. Casson, Information and Organisation: A New Perspective on the Theory of the Firm, (Oxford, 1997), pp. 117–8.

  74. 74.

    M. Kirby, ‘Quakerism, Entrepreneurship and the Family Firm in North-East England’ in Entrepreneurship, Networks and Modern Business, J. Brown & M.B. Rose [eds] (Manchester, 1993), pp. 105–123, pp. 106–107.

  75. 75.

    F. Carnevali, ‘Luxury for the masses: Jewellery, Creativity and Entrepreneurship in America and Britain’, (Harvard University Press, forthcoming).

  76. 76.

    M.B. Rose, ‘Beyond Buddenbrooks: The Family Firm and the Management of Succession in Nineteenth-Century Britain’, in Entrepreneurship, Networks and Modern Business, J. Brown & M.B. Rose [eds], pp. 127–143, p. 135.

  77. 77.

    M. B. Rose, ‘Beyond Buddenbrooks’, p. 134.

  78. 78.

    C.G. Brush, ‘Women Entrepreneurs: A Research Overview’ in The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship, M. Casson, B. Yeung, A. Basu & N. Wadeson [eds], (Oxford, 2006), pp. 611–628, p. 615.

  79. 79.

    C. G. Brush, ‘Women Entrepreneurs’, p. 618.

  80. 80.

    C. G. Brush, ‘Women Entrepreneurs’, p. 619.

  81. 81.

    H. Barker, The Business of Women, p. 69; A. C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, p. 120.

  82. 82.

    C. G. Brush, ‘Women Entrepreneurs’, p. 618.

  83. 83.

    A.C. Kay, The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship, pp. 122–3.

  84. 84.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property; Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment 1850–1930, D.R. Green, A. Owens, J. Maltby & J. Rutterford [eds], (Oxford, 2011); D.R. Green & A. Owens, ‘Gentlewomanly Capitalism? Spinsters, Widows and Wealth-Holding in England and Wales, c.1800–1860’, Economic History Review, Vol 56, 3, (2003), pp. 510–36; D.R. Green, A. Owens, J. Maltby & J. Rutterford, ‘Lives in the Balance? Gender, Age and Assets in Late Nineteenth-Century England and Wales’, Continuity and Change, Vol 24, 2, (2009), pp. 307–335; J. Maltby & J. Rutterford, ‘She Possessed Her Own Fortune: Women Investors from the Late Nineteenth-century to the Early Twentieth-century’ in Business History, Vol 48, 2, (April, 2006), pp. 220–253; J. Maltby & J. Rutterford, ‘The Widow, The Clergyman and The Reckless: Women Investors in England, 1830–1914’ in Feminist Economics, Vol 12, 1–2, (January/April, 2006), pp. 111–138.

  85. 85.

    H. Doe, Enterprising women and shipping in the nineteenth century, (Boydell, 2009), p. 219.

  86. 86.

    R. J. Morris, Men, Women and Property, p. 370.

  87. 87.

    G.C. Acheson & J.D. Turner, ‘Shareholder Liability, Risk Aversion and Investment Return in Nineteenth-Century British Banking’ in Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment 1850–1930, D.R. Green, A. Owens, J. Maltby & J. Rutterford [eds], (Oxford, 2011), pp. 206–227, p. 226.

  88. 88.

    H. Doe, Enterprising Women, p. 139.

  89. 89.

    D.R. Green, A. Owens, C. Swan, & C. Van Lieshout, ‘Assets of the Dead: Wealth, Investment and Modernity in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century England and Wales’ in Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment 1850–1930, D.R. Green, A. Owens, J. Maltby & J. Rutterford [eds], (Oxford, 2011, pp. 57–81, pp. 67–8.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Aston, J. (2016). Locating Female Business Owners in the Historiography. 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_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30880-7_2

  • 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