ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the differences in the homemaking experience of Anne and James that highlights the gender differences of setting up an independent household. Single people needed to ensure that their households ran smoothly despite lacking a spouse. The cultural impropriety that might have adhered to Anne Boulton's independent household was in part mitigated by her high standing in local society as the daughter and sister of important men. The economic aspect of the single life is highlighted in advice literature. The professional men who headed these households gained reliable housekeepers from within their own families. An independent but hard and frugal existence is suggested by the inventory and administration of Elizabeth Whitehouse. No indication of any additional forms of employment is in evidence in Whitehouse's inventory, but she did have a lodger to supplement her income. Diversity and self-sufficiency of household production were routine in the early modern period.
