ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century the notion of separate spheres, where men earned the money and women maintained the home, was a pervasive belief for the British middle class.2 What happened, however, when men died? How did their widows sustain the family in the absence of earned income and what were the implications of this for maintaining the ideology of separate spheres? All widows, of course, faced this situation and for the working class a husband’s death signalled a very real drop in household income. But for those who managed to accumulate capital over the life course, a husband’s death also signalled the passage of property, usually to his widow and children. In a legal sense, this transition heralded the economic independence of a widow and, unless specified otherwise in the terms of the will, she could do with her newly acquired fortune what she wished. This situation, of course, was fraught with moral danger. Having come into money, the widow herself acquired economic power and assumed the role of the main household provider. This in itself posed problems for the ideological underpinnings of separate spheres. On the one hand the power of the wealthy widow to upset social relations became a reality, and on the other, poorly equipped to understand the ways of money, the widow either by accident or design, could leave her children penniless. In this case, inheritance became a pivotal moment in the preservation of separate spheres.
