ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the influences of gender, on homemaking practices, produced by a household consisting of a single man or woman, or a household where the husband or wife has died. Thus 'the bachelor returned to his lair of an evening; only the married man dwelt in a home'. The examples of homemakers used in this chapter were creating homes against this backdrop of moral pressures. This chapter examines, by 1831 giving dinner parties was a growing form of social function and part of the public role of the home. The six to be studied here are Marie Ann Drinkwater, Elizabeth Stamper, Mary Fisher, Mary Ann Livingston, Celia Parker and Caroline Smelt. Trade directories in 1839 and 1845 gave Miss Caroline Smelt's address as North Street, another of Chichester's main streets and the same one lived in by the Peat cabinet makers and the Newland family.
