ABSTRACT
This brief section gives some of the common financial and legislative background to the chapters on the eighteenth century. At this time by far the most important occasions for the transmission of wealth for women were marriage and inheritance. Dowries or marriage contracts accompanied marriages of people of quite modest means with the intention of providing for widowhood. In England, unlike many other European countries, there was no direct relationship between dowry (the property a woman brought with her at marriage) and dower (the provision made for a widow), though a marriage contract made either before or after the marriage might establish such a connection. One of the most important characteristics of the period was the growing importance of wealth in forms other than land, which meant that women were increasingly likely to bring money or securities as a dowry or as part of a marriage contract, and were increasingly likely to inherit money and securities and to have to manage them for survival.
