ABSTRACT
The desire and the need for legitimate heirs was a powerful consideration, affecting people’s deepest-held wishes. After 1740, schemes of inheritance often gave precedence to close female kin such as sisters or nieces over remote male cousins. One noticeable effect of giving heiresses more economic independence by putting their separate property under the control of themselves or their trustees, was that they became somewhat less attractive to potential husbands whose eyes were mainly on the sole control of the money. The amounts of the jointures, pin money and portions were specified in the settlement and safeguarded by law, but the size of the jointure for a woman was usually dependent on the amount of money she brought into her husband’s family, and often bore a precise relation, depending on the ‘market’ in brides and current rate of interest, to her dowry or inheritance.
