ABSTRACT
Studiesofwomen'spropertyholdinginearlymodemEnglandhaveshownthat contrarytotheprescriptionofcommonlaw,womenownedandinherited propertyonarelativelyequalbasiswithmen.'Women'sstatusandrights regardingpropertyholding,however,appeartohavedeclinedduringthecourse oftheeighteenthandearly-nineteenthcenturies.DavidoffandHallhave arguedthatwomen'spropertybecametightlycontrolledbytheirmale relatives.Whilstmenwouldmanageanddeploytheirassetsineconomic endeavour,womenwerenotexpectedtobe'activeeconomicagentsoreven carefortheirownproperty'.Thuswomen'spropertyheldinpersonaltrusts,a devicemainlyassociatedwiththeuppermiddleclass,becamearesourcefor maleenterprisewhilstwomenreceivedonlyincome. 2Moreover,some historianscontendthatwomenhadagreater'emotionalinvestment'in householdandpersonalgoodsbecausetheywereunlikelytoownorbequeath realestate.3MaxineBerg'sresearchontheindustrialtownsofBirminghamand Sheffieldintheeighteenthcenturyquestionstheseperspectivesonwomen's propertyrights.Shearguesthattrustsweresetupbypeopleofvaryingdegrees ofwealthandfordifferentreasons.Moreoftenthannot,personaltrustswere createdtoprovideforchildrenratherthanwives.Indeed,Bergcontendsthat theprovincialindustrialclassesinfactusedtrustsasadeviceforprotecting women'sproperty.Indeed,herresearchsuggeststhatthewomenofthese
Women's ability to own and exercise control of their property is central to our understanding of women's participation in the wider economy during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, since this perception of a marginalisation in women's property rights is paralleled by their exclusion from sectors of commercial enterprise. 5 Davidoff and Hall have further argued that, despite limited control and ownership of property, and a perceived retreat from trade (promoted largely from the increasing identification of middling women with the domestic sphere, and the difficulties of engaging in a market based on large-scale enterprise), women were in private the 'hidden investment' of the family business. Women continued to perform a wide variety of tasks such as caring for family members, supplying small sums of money with which to generate new businesses and earning money in the 'interstices ofhousehold management'. All this whilst simultaneously trying to maintain rank by the 'appearance of a non-working lifestyle'. Women would only openly enter the public world of trade if they had no income of their own or no man to support them.6 Therefore, in reality, women continued to work in both the public and private sphere.
