ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the demands made by John Shaw and Elizabeth, and in time, the wider family, by an enterprising life. It shows their courtship and marriage, both Elizabeth and John were raised in deeply affectionate, tightly bound and largely contented families. Just as John could happily retire to the simple pleasures of home so Elizabeth could be active, engaged and forthright. It was in thus acting, informed by their own respective upbringings, cultures and influences, that they truly forged their unlimited partnership as a precept by which to live. Loving tenderness is mixed with stern admonitions to pluck up John's courage, show his real character, be active and virtuous Elizabeth all but tells him to be a proper man. A central claim of the separate spheres concept is that women became progressively excluded from the public realm and public roles because these were increasingly located or enacted away from the home.
