Regency Women and Property

It's a common misconception that women in the Regency Era were not allowed to own property or handle money. The truth is, women could, but only under certain circumstances.

The law didn't say a spinster or a widow couldn't own property or handle money, the law said married women couldn't. As a result, spinsters and widows were often dependent on trustees. So, while the end result was often the same-- females were dependent on brothers or some male--it wasn't because the law said they couldn't own property. While more men than women did own business, quite a few are listed in the directories. In Birmingham, most were listed as owning confectionery or bake shops.

For example, Mrs. Eleanor Coade owned a ceramic statuary business. Many of her pieces still exist in good condition and are called Coade Stone. Mrs. Coade had a partner at first but was the owner of both property and business and all the bills were sent to her. She later took designers into partnership, as well.

Married women and girls who had not married were different. Because all girls were expected to marry, it was rare for someone to leave money or property in the form of inheritance. On the rare occasion that a girl or unmarried woman did inherit, often her inheritances were tied up to protect them from a wastrel husband--as far as possible. If a girl inherited money, it was usually labeled as a dowry, so she couldn't use it for living expenses if she didn't marry, unless it was expressly stated in the document setting aside the money. Unfortunately this often left an unmarried woman with out funds to survive independently. Bankers and solicitors feared a future husband would hold them responsible if they paid out any money to her before the marriage, even if she were thirty years old. Married women could only own property if it had been set aside and protected before she wed.

The woman who owned a business had to be very careful whom she married. Such a woman would be in danger from fortune hunters as much as a man or woman of a higher class who did have a real fortune. While it was possible to arrange matters so that a husband couldn't sell his wife's real estate, there was little that worked to keep him from being able to use her income as he wished.

After a woman or her solicitor found a way to keep some money or property separate, many husbands would "kick or kiss" her into signing it over to him. Caroline Norton's husband didn't try kicking or kissing. He offered a deal which would include the return of the money with interest and an extra something in future for her sons. When he reneged on payment and she taxed him with it, he sneered at her and told her that no promise a husband made to his wife after marriage was valid-- he didn't add, except for those made under the direction of the court. Though they were separated and her husband paid nothing for her upkeep, every time she made a little money, her husband took it. He even made the editors of the magazine for whom she wrote send him the check instead of sending it to her. She was too proud take revenge by running up bills and have a tradesmen sue her husband, which was about the only recourse a woman in her situation could do, and many did.

So, being a widow was about the most freedom a woman could hope for, unless she'd been blessed with a loving and generous husband without vices that would tempt him to take her money or property. And since I'm all about happy endings, that's always the kind of husband my heroine will have.