CHAPTER II

CAPITALISTS

Term includes aristocracy and _nouveau riche_. Tendency of these two classes to approximate in manners—Activity of aristocratic women with affairs of household, estate and nation—Zeal for patents and monopolies—Money lenders—Shipping trade—Contractors—Joan Dant—Dorothy Petty—Association of wives in husbands’ businesses—Decrease of women’s business activity in upper classes—Contrast of Dutch women—Growing idleness of gentlewomen.

PERHAPS it is impossible to say what exactly constitutes a capitalist, and no attempt will be made to define the term, which is used here to include the aristocracy who had long been accustomed to the control of wealth, and also those families whose wealth had been newly acquired through trade or commerce. The second group conforms more nearly to the ideas generally understood by the term capitalist; but in English society the two groups are closely related.

The first group naturally represents the older traditional relation of women to affairs in the upper classes, while the second responded more quickly to the new spirit which was being manifested in English life. No rigid line of demarcation existed between them, because while the younger sons of the gentry engaged in trade, the daughters of wealthy tradesmen were eagerly sought as brides by an impoverished aristocracy. Therefore the manners and customs of the two groups gradually approximated to each other.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was usual for the women of the aristocracy to be very busy with affairs—affairs which concerned their household, their estates and even the Government.

Thus Lady Barrymore writes she is “a cuntry lady living in Ireland and convercing with none but masons and carpendors, for I am now finishing a house, so that if my govenour [Sir Edmund Verney] please to build a new house, that may be well seated and have a good prospect, I will give him my best advice gratis.”[3]

Footnote 3:

Verney Family, _Memoirs during the Civil War_, Vol. I., p. 210.

Lady Gardiner’s husband apologises for her not writing personally to Sir Ralph Verney, she “being almost melted with the double heat of the weather and her hotter employment, because the fruit is suddenly ripe and she is so busy preserving.”[4] Their household consisted of thirty persons.

Footnote 4:

_Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 12.

Among the nobility the management of the estate was often left for months in the wife’s care while the husband was detained at Court for business or pleasure. It was during her husband’s absence that Brilliana, Lady Harley defended Brampton Castle from an attack by the Royalist forces who laid siege to it for six weeks, when her defence became famous for its determination and success. Her difficulties in estate management are described in letters to her son:

“You know how your fathers biusnes is neglected; and alas! it is not speaking will sarue turne, wheare theare is not abilltise to doo other ways; thearefore I could wisch, that your father had one of more vnderstanding to intrust, to looke to, if his rents are not payed, and I thinke it will be so. I could desire, if your father thought well of it, that Mr. Tomas Moore weare intrusted with it; he knows your fathers estate, and is an honnest man, and not giuen to great expences, and thearefore I thinke he would goo the most frugally way. I knowe it would be some charges to haue him and his wife in the howes; but I thinke it would quite the chargess. I should be loth to haue a stranger, nowe your father is away.”[5]

Footnote 5:

Harley, _Letters of Brilliana, the Lady_, pp. 146-7, 1641.

“I loos the comfort of your fathers company, and am in but littell safety, but that my trust is in God; and what is doun to your fathers estate pleases him not, so that I wisch meselfe, with all my hart, at Loundoun, and then your father might be a wittnes of what is spent; but if your father thinke it beest for me to be in the cuntry, I am every well pleased with what he shall thinke best.”[6]

Footnote 6:

Harley, _Letters of Brilliana, The Lady_, p. 167, 1642.

One gathers from these letters that in spite of her devotion and ability and his constant absence Sir E. Harley never gave his wife full control of the estate, and was always more ready to censure than to praise her arrangements; but other men who were immersed in public matters thankfully placed the whole burthen of family affairs in the capable hands of their wives.

Lady Murray wrote of her father, Sir George Baillie, “He had no ambition but to be free of debt; yet so great trust and confidence did he put in my mother, and so absolutely free of all jealousy and suspicion, that he left the management of his affairs entirely to her, without scarce asking a question about them; except sometimes would say to her, ‘Is my debt paid yet?’ though often did she apply to him for direction and advice; since he knew enough of the law for the management of his own affairs, when he would take the time or trouble or to prevent his being imposed upon by others.”[7]

Footnote 7:

Murray (Lady), _Memoirs of Lady Grisell Baillie_, p. 13.

Mrs. Alice Thornton wrote of her mother:

“Nor was she awanting to make a fare greatter improvement [than her dowery of £2000] of my father’s estate through her wise and prudential government of his family, and by her care was a meanes to give opportunity of increasing his patrimony.”[8]

Footnote 8:

Thornton (Mrs. Alice), _Autobiography_, p. 101, (Surtees’ Society Vol. lxii.

In addition to the Household Accounts those of the whole of Judge Fell’s estate at Swarthmore, Lancashire, were kept by his daughter Sarah. The following entries show that the family affairs included a farm, a forge, mines, some interest in shipping and something of the nature of a Bank.

July 11, 1676, is entered: “To mᵒ Recᵈ. of Tho: Greaves wife wᶜʰ. I am to returne to London foʳ her, & is to bee pᵈ, to her sonn Jⁿᵒ. ffellꝑ Waltʳ. miers in London, 001. 00. 00.”

Jan., 14, 1676-7, by money lent Wiƚƚm Wilson our forge Clarke till hee gett money in for Ireon sold 10. 0. 0.

Aug. ye 9º 1677 by mᵒ “in expence at adgarley when wee went to chuse oare to send father 000. 00. 04.”

Other payments are entered for horses to “lead oare.”[9] &c., &c.

Footnote 9:

Fell (Sarah), _Household Account Book_.

In addition to those of her family Sarah Fell kept the accounts for the local “Monthly Meeting” of the Society of Friends, making the payments on its behalf to various poor Friends.

One of the sisters after her marriage embarked upon speculations in salt; of her, another sister, Margaret Rous, writes to their mother: “She kept me in the dark and had not you wrote me them few words about her I had not known she had been so bad. But I had a fear before how she would prove if I should meddle of her, and since I know her mind wrote to her, being she was so wickedly bent and resolved in her mind, I would not meddle of her but leave her to her husbands relations, and her salt concerns, since which I have heard nothing from her. But I understand by others she is still in the salt business. I know not what it will benefit her but she spends her time about it. I have left her at present.”[10]

Footnote 10:

Crosfield (H. G.), _Life of Margaret Fox, of Swarthmore Hall_, p. 232, 1699.

A granddaughter of Oliver Cromwell, the wife of Thos. Bendish, was also interested in the salt business, having property in salt works at Yarmouth in the management of which she was actively concerned. It was said of her that “Her courage and presence of mind were remarkable in one of her sex, ... she would sometimes, after a hard day of drudgery go to the assembly at Yarmouth, and appear one of the most brilliant there.”[11]

Footnote 11:

Costello, _Eminent Englishwomen_, Vol. III, p. 55.

Initiative and enterprise were shown by Lady Falkland during her husband’s term of office in Ireland whither she accompanied him.

“The desire of the benefit and commodity of that nation set her upon a great design: it was to bring up the use of all trades in that country, which is fain to be beholden to others for the smallest commodities; to this end she procured some of each kind to come from those other places where those trades are exercised, as several sorts of linen and woollen weavers, dyers, all sorts of spinners and knitters, hatters, lace-makers, and many other trades at the very beginning.”

After a description of her methods for instruction in these arts the biographer continues: “She brought it to that pass that they there made broad-cloth so fine ... that her Lord being Deputy wore it. Yet it came to nothing; which she imputed to a judgment of God on her, because the overseers made all those poor children go to church; ... and that therefore her business did not succeed. But others thought it rather that she was better at contriving than executing, and that too many things were undertaken at the very first; and that she was fain (having little choice) to employ either those that had little skill in the matters they dealt in, or less honesty; and so she was extremely cozened ... but chiefly the ill order she took for paying money in this ... having the worst memory in such things in the world ... and never keeping any account of what she did, she was most subject to pay the same things often (as she hath had it confessed to her by some that they have in a small matter made her pay them the same thing five times in five days).”[12]

Footnote 12:

_Falkland, (The Lady), Her Life_, pp. 18-20.

Lady Falkland received small sympathy from her husband in her dealings with affairs—and though her methods may have been exasperating, their unfortunate differences were not wholly due to her temperament. He had married her for her fortune and when this was settled on their son and not placed in his control, his disappointment was so great that his affections were alienated from her.

Of her efforts to further his interests Lord Falkland wrote to Lord Conway:

“My very good Lord,

By all my wife’s letters I understand my obligations to your Lordship to be very many; and she takes upon her to have received so manifold and noble demonstrations of your favour to herself, that she begins to conceive herself some able body in court, by your countenance to do me courtesies, if she had the wit as she hath the will. She makes it appear she hath done me some good offices in removing some infusions which my great adversary here (Loftus) hath made unto you ... it was high time; for many evil consequences of the contrary have befallen me since that infusion was first made, which I fear will not be removed in haste; and must thank her much for her careful pains in it, though it was but an act of duty in her to see me righted when she knew me wronged ... and beseech your Lordship still to continue that favour to us both;—to her, as well in giving her good counsel as good countenance within a new world and court, at such a distance from her husband a poor weak woman stands in the greatest need of to dispatch her suits,” ... etc., etc.

“Dublyn Castle this 26th of July, 1625.”[13]

Footnote 13:

_Falkland (The Lady), Her Life_, pp. 131-132.

Later he continues in the same strain:

“... I am glad your Lordship doth approve my wife’s good affection to her husband, which was a point I never doubted, but for her abilities in agency of affairs, as I was never taken with opinion of them, so I was never desirous to employ them if she had them, for I conceive women to be no fit solicitors of state affairs for though it sometimes happen that they have good wits, it then commonly falls out that they have over-busy natures withal. For my part I should take much more comfort to hear that she were quietly retired to her mother’s in the country, than that she had obtained a great suit in the court.”[14]

Footnote 14:

_Ibid._, pp. 132-3.

The sentiments expressed by Lord Falkland were not characteristic of his time, when husbands were generally thankful to avail themselves of their wives’ services in such matters.

While Sir Ralph Verney was exiled in France, he proposed that his wife should return to England to attend to some urgent business. His friend, Dr. Denton replied to the suggestion:

“... not to touch upon inconveniences of yʳ comminge, women were never soe usefull as now, and though yᵘ should be my agent and sollicitour of all the men I knowe (and therefore much more to be preferred in yʳ own cause) yett I am confident if yᵘ were here, yᵘ would doe as our sages doe, instruct yʳ wife, and leave her to act it wᵗʰ committees, their sexe entitles them to many priviledges and we find the comfort of them more now than ever.”[15]

Footnote 15:

_Verney Family_, Vol. II., p. 240, 646.

There are innumerable accounts in contemporary letters and papers of the brave and often successful efforts of women to stem the flood of misfortune which threatened ruin to their families.

Katharine Lady Bland treated with Captain Hotham in 1642 on behalf of Lord Savile “and agreed with him for the preservation of my lords estate and protection of his person for £1,000,” £320 of which had already been taken “from Lord Savile’s trunk at Kirkstall Abbey ... and the Captain ... promised to procure a protection from the parliament ... for his lordships person and estate.”[16]

Footnote 16:

_Calendar State Papers_, Domestic, April 8, 1646.

Lady Mary Heveningham, through her efforts restored the estate to the family after her husband had been convicted of high treason at the Restoration.[17]

Footnote 17:

_Hunter (Joseph), History and Topography of Ketteringham_, p. 46.

Of Mrs. Muriel Lyttelton, the daughter of Lord Chancellor Bromley, it was said that she “may be called the second founder of the family, as she begged the estate of King James when it was forfeited and lived a pattern of a good wife, affectionate widow, and careful parent for thirty years, with the utmost prudence and economy at Hagley to retrieve the estate and pay off the debts; the education of her children in virtue and the protestant religion being her principal employ. Her husband, Mr. John Lyttelton, a zealous papist, was condemned, and his estates forfeited, for being concern’d in Essex’s plot.”[18]

Footnote 18:

Nash, _Hist. and Antiq. of Worcester_, Vol. I., p. 492. It appears by depositions in the Court of Chancery that she paid off £25,000 which was charged upon the estate, and only sold lands to the value of £8,854, _Ibid._, p. 496.

Charles Parker confessed, “Certainly I had starved had I not left all to my wife to manage, who gets something by living there and haunting some of her kindred and what wayes I know not but I am sure such as noe way entangle me in conscience or loyalty nor hinder me from serving the King.”[19]

Footnote 19:

_Nicholas Papers_, Vol. I., p. 97. Charles Parker to Lord Hatton.

Lady Fanshawe said her husband “thought it conveniente to send me into England again, ... there to try what sums I could raise, both for his subsistence abroad and mine at home.... I ... embarked myself in a hoy for Dover, with Mrs. Waller, and my sister Margaret Harrison and my little girl Nan, ... I had ... the good fortune as I then thought it, to sell £300 a year to him that is now Judge Archer in Essex, for which he gave me £4,000 which at that time I thought a vast sum; ... five hundred pounds I carried to my husband, the rest I left in my father’s agent’s hands to be returned as we needed it.”[20]

Footnote 20:

_Fanshawe (Lady), Memoirs of_, pp. 80-81.

The Marquis of Ormonde wrote: “I have written 2 seuerall ways of late to my wife about our domestick affaires, which are in great disorder betweext the want of meanes to keepe my sonnes abroad and the danger of leaueing them at home.... I thank you for your continued care of my children. I haue written twice to my wife to the effect you speake of. I pray God shee be able to put it in execution either way.”[21]

Footnote 21:

_Nicholas Papers_, Vol. III., pp. 274-6. Marquis of Ormonde to Sir Ed. Nicholas, 1656.

This letter does not breathe that spirit of confidence in the wife’s ability which was shown in some of the others and it happened sometimes that the wife was either overwhelmed by procedure beyond her understanding, or at least sought for special consideration on the plea of her sex’s weakness and ignorance.

Sarah, wife of Henry Burton, gives an account of Burton’s trial in the Star Chamber, his sentence and punishment (fine, pillory, imprisonment for life) and his subsequent transportation to Guernsey, “where he now is but by what order your petitioner knoweth not and is kept in strict durance of exile and imprisonment, and utterly denied the society of your petitioner contrary to the liberties and privileges of this kingdome ... debarred of the accesse of friends, the use of pen, inck and paper and other means to make knowne his just complaintes,” and she petitions the House of Commons “to take her distressed condition into your serious consideracion and because your peticioner is a woman not knowing how to prosecute nor manage so great and weighty busines” begs that Burton may be sent over to prosecute his just complaint.[22]

Footnote 22:

_State Papers, Domestic_, cccclxxi. 36, Nov. 7, 1640.

Similarly, Bastwick’s wife pleads that he is so closely imprisoned in the Isle of Scilly “that your petitioner is not permitted to have any access unto him, so that for this 3 yeares and upward hir husband hath been exiled from hir, and she in all this time could not obtayne leave, although she hath earnestly sued for it, neither to live with him nor so much as to see him, and whereas your peticioner hath many smale children depending uppon hir for there mauntenance, and she of hir selfe being every way unable to provide for them, she being thus separated from her deare and loving husband and hir tender babes from there carefull father (they are in) great straights want and miserie,” and she begs that her husband may be sent to England, “your Petitioner being a woman no way able to follow nor manage so great and weighty a cause....”[23]

Footnote 23:

_S.P.D._, cccclxxi. 37, 1640.

The above efforts were all made in defence of family estates, but at this time women were also concerned with the affairs of the nation, in which they took an active part.

Mrs. Hutchinson describes how “When the Parliament sat again, the colonel [Hutchinson] sent up his wife to solicit his business in the house, that the Lord Lexington’s bill might not pass the lower house ... she notwithstanding many other discouragements waited upon the business every day, when her adversaries as diligently solicited against her” a friend told her how “the laste statemen’s wives came and offered them all the information they had gathered from their husbands, and how she could not but know more than any of them; and if yet she would impart anything that might show her gratitude, she might redeem her family from ruin, ... but she discerned his drift and scorned to become an informer, and made him believe she was ignorant, though she could have enlightened him in the very thing he sought for; which they are now never likely to know much of, it being locked up in the grave.”[24]

Footnote 24:

_Life of Colonel Hutchinson_, by his Wife, pp. 334-336.

Herbert Morley wrote to Sir William Campion in 1645:

“I could impart more, but letters are subject to miscarriage, therefore I reserve myself to a more fit opportunity.... If a conference might be had, I conceive it would be most for the satisfaction of us both, to prevent of any possible hazard of your person. If you please to let your lady meet me at Watford ... or come hither, I will procure her a pass.”[25]

Footnote 25:

_Sussex Arch. Coll._, Vol. x., p. 5. To Sir William Campion from Herbert Morley, July 23rd, 1645.

Sir William replied: “For any business you have to impart to me, I have that confidence in you, by reason of our former acquaintance, that I should not make any scruple to send my wife to the places mentioned; but the truth is, she is at present soe neare her time for lying downe, for she expects to be brought to bed within less than fourteen days, that she is altogether unfit to take soe long a journey....”[26]

Footnote 26:

_Ibid._, Vol. x., p. 6.

A book might be wholly filled with a story of the part taken by women in the political and religious struggles of this period. They were also

## active among the crowd who perpetually beseiged the Court for grants of

wardships and monopolies or patents.

Ann Wallwyn writes to Salisbury soliciting the wardship of the son of James Tomkins who is likely to die.[27] The petition of Dame Anne Wigmore, widow of Sir Richard Wigmore, states that she has found out a suit which will rectify many abuses, bring in a yearly revenue to the Crown and give satisfaction to the Petitioner for the great losses of herself and her husband. Details follow for a scheme for a corporation of carriers and others.[28]

Footnote 27:

_C.S.P.D._ lxvii, 129, 1611.

Footnote 28:

_C.S.P.D._ clxii, 8, March 2, 1630.

Dorothy Selkane reminds Salisbury that a patent has been promised her for the digging of coals upon a royal manor. The men who manage the business for her are content to undertake all charges for the discovery of the coal and to compensate the tenants of the manor according to impartial arbitrators. She begs Salisbury that as she has been promised a patent the matter may be brought to a final conclusion that she may not be forced to trouble him further “having alredie bestowed a yeres solicitinge therein.”[29] In 1610 the same lady writes again:—“I have bene at gte toyle and charges this yere and a halfe past as also have bene put to extraordinarie sollicitacion manie and sundry waies for the Dispatching of my suite ...” and begs that the grant may pass without delay.[30]

Footnote 29:

_S.P.D._ xlviii, 119, 22nd October, 1609.

Footnote 30:

_S.P.D._ liii, 131, April 1610.

A grant was made in 1614 to Anne, Roger and James Wright of a licence to keep a tennis court at St. Edmund’s Bury, co. Suffolk, for life.[31] Bessy Welling, servant to the late Prince Henry, petitioned for the erecting of an office for enrolling the Apprentices of Westminster, etc. As this was not granted, she therefore begs for a lease of some concealed lands [manors for which no rent has been paid for a hundred years] for sixty-one years. The Petitioner hopes to recover them for the King at her own charges.[32] Lady Roxburgh craves a licence to assay all gold and silver wire “finished at the bar” before it is worked, showing that it is no infringement on the Earl of Holland’s grant which is for assaying and sealing gold and silver after it is made. This, it is pointed out, will be a means for His Majesty to pay off the debt he owes to Lady Roxburgh which otherwise must be paid some other way.[33]

Footnote 31:

_C.S.P.D._ lxxvii, 5 April 5, 1614.

Footnote 32:

_S.P.D._ cxi, 121, 1619.

Footnote 33:

_S.P.D._ clxxx, 66, 1624.

A petition from Katharine Elliot “wett nurse to the Duke of Yorke” shows that there is a moor waste or common in Somersetshire called West Sedge Moor which appears to be the King’s but has been appropriated and encroached upon by bordering commoners. She begs for a grant of it for sixty years; as an inducement the Petitioner offers to recover it at her own costs and charges and to pay a rent of one shilling per acre, the King never previously having received benefit therefrom.[34] The reference by Windebank notes that the king is willing to gratify the Petitioner. Another petition was received from this same lady declaring that “Divers persons being of no corporation prefers the trade of buying and selling silk stockings and silk waistcoats as well knit as woven uttering the Spanish or baser sort of silk at as dear rates as the first Naples and also frequently vending the woven for the knit, though in price and goodness there is almost half in half difference.” She prays a grant for thirty-one years for the selling of silk stockings, half stockings and waistcoats, to distinguish the woven from the knit receiving from the salesmen a shilling for every waistcoat, sixpence per pair of silk stockings and fourpence for every half pair.[35]

Footnote 34:

_S.P.D._ cccxxiii, 109, 18th June, 1637.

Footnote 35:

_S.P.D._ cccxxiii., 7, _Bk. of Petitioners_, Car. I.

Elizabeth, Viscountess Savage, points out that Freemen of the city enter into bond on their admittance with two sureties of a hundred marks to the Chamberlain of London not to exercise any trade other than that of the Company they were admitted into. Of late years persons having used other trades and contrived not to have their bonds forfeited, and the penalty belonging to His Majesty, she begs a grant of such penalties to be recovered at her instance and charge.[36]

Footnote 36:

_S.P.D._ ccciii., 65, Dec. 6th, 1635.

The petition of Margaret Cary, relict of Thomas Cary Esquire, one of the Grooms of the Chamber to the King on the behalf of herself and her daughters, begs for a grant to compound with offenders by engrossering and transporting of wool, wool fells, fuller’s earth, lead, leather, corn and grain, she to receive a Privy Seal for two fourth-parts of the fines and compositions. Her reasons for desiring this grant are that her husband’s expense in prosecuting like cases has reaped no benefit of his grant of seven-eighths of forfeited bonds for the like offences. She urges the usefulness of the scheme and the existence of similar grants.[37]

Footnote 37:

_S.P.D._ cccvi., 27, 1635.

Mistress Dorothy Seymour petitions for a grant of the fines imposed on those who export raw hides contrary to the Proclamation and thereby make coaches, boots, etc., dearer. The reference to the Petition states: “It is His Majesty’s gratious pleasure that the petitioner cause impoundr. to be given to the Attorney General touching the offences above mencioned ... and as proffyt shall arise to His Majesty ... he will give her such part as shall fully satisfy her pains and good endeavours.”[38]

Footnote 38:

_S.P.D._ cccxlvi., 2, Feb. 1st, 1637.

The projecting of patents and monopolies was the favourite pursuit of fashionable people of both sexes. Ben Johnson satirises the Projectress in the person of Lady Tailebush, of whom the Projector, Meercraft says:

... “She and I now Are on a Project, for the fact, and venting Of a new kind of fucus (paint for Ladies) To serve the Kingdom; wherein she herself Hath travel’d specially, by the way of service Unto her sex, and hopes to get the monopoly, As the Reward of her Invention.”[39]

Footnote 39:

Jonson, (Ben.) _The Devil is an Ass_, Act III., Scene iv.

When Eitherside assures her mistress:

“I do hear You ha’ cause madam, your suit goes on.”

Lady Tailebush replies:

“Yes faith, there’s life in’t now. It is referr’d If we once see it under the seals, wench, then, Have with ’em, for the great caroch, six horses And the two coachmen, with my Ambler bare, And my three women; we will live i’ faith, The examples o’ the Town, and govern it. I’ll lead the fashion still.”...[40]

Footnote 40:

(_Ibid._), Act IV., Scene ii.

From the women who begged for monopolies which if granted must have involved much worry and labour if they were to be made profitable, we pass naturally to women who actually owned and managed businesses requiring a considerable amount of capital. They not infrequently acted as pawn-brokers and moneylenders. Thus, complaint is made that Elizabeth Pennell had stolen “two glazier’s vices with the screws and appurtenances” and pawned them to one Ellianor Troughton, wife of Samuel Troughton broker.[41]

Footnote 41:

_Middlesex Co. Rec. Sess. Books_, p. 18, 1690.

Richard Braithwaite tells the following story of a “Useresse” as though this occupation were perfectly usual for women. “Wee reade in a booke entituled the _Gift of Feare_, how a Religious Divine comming to a certaine Vseresse to advise her of the state of her soule, and instruct her in the way to salvation at such time as she lay languishing in her bed of affliction; told her how there were three things by her to be necessarily performed, if ever she hoped to be saved: She must become _contrite_ in heart ... _confesse_ her sins ... make _restitution_ according to her meanes whereto shee thus replyed, _Two of those first I will doe willingly: but to doe the last, I shall hold it a difficulty; for should I make restitution, what would remaine to raise my children their portion?_ To which the Divine answered; _Without these three you cannot be saved. Yea but_, quoth shee, _Doe our Learned Men and Scriptures say so? Yes, surely_ said the Divine. _And I will try_, (quoth shee) _whether they say true or no, for I will restore nothing_. And so resolving, fearefully dyed ... for preferring the care of her posterity, before the honour of her Maker.”[42]

Footnote 42:

Braithwaite, (Richd.), _The English Gentleman_, p. 300, 1641.

The names of women often occur in connection with the shipping trade and with contracts. Some were engaged in business with their husbands as in the case of a fine remitted to Thomas Price and Collet his wife for shipping 200 dozen of old shoes, with intention to transport them beyond the seas contrary to a Statute (5th year Edward VI) on account of their poverty.[43] Others were widows like Anne Hodsall whose husband, a London merchant, traded for many years to the Canary Islands, the greatest part of his estate being there. He could not recover it in his lifetime owing to the war with Spain and therefore his wife was left in great distress with four children. Her estate in the Canary Islands is likely to be confiscated, there being no means of recovering it thence except by importing wines, and it would be necessary to take pipe-staves over there to make casks to bring back the wines. She begs the council therefore “in commiseration of her distressed estate to grant a licence to her and her assignes to lade one ship here with woollen commodities for Ireland, To lade Pipe staves in Ireland (notwithstanding the prohibition) and to send the same to the Canary Islands.”[44]

Footnote 43:

Overall _Remembrancia, Analytical Index to_, p. 519, 1582.

Footnote 44:

_Council Register_, 8th August, 1628.

Joseph Holroyd employed a woman as his shipping agent; in a letter dated 1706 he writes re certain goods for Holland: that these “I presume must be marked as usual and forward to Madam Brown at Hull ...” and he informs Madam Hannah Browne, that “By orders of Mr. John Whittle I have sent you one packe and have 2 packes more to send as undʳ. You are to follow Mr. Whittle’s directions in shipping.”[45]

Footnote 45:

Holroyd, Joseph (Cloth Factor) and Saml. Hill (clothier), _Letter Bks. of_, pp. 18-25.

In 1630 Margrett Greeneway, widow of Thos. Greeneway, baker, begged leave to finish carrying out a contract made by her husband notwithstanding the present restraint on the bringing of corn to London. The contract was to supply the East India Company with biscuit. Margrett Greeneway petitions to bring five hundred quarters of wheat to London—some are already bought and she asks for leave to buy the rest. The petition was granted.[46]

Footnote 46:

_C.R._, 3rd December, 1630.

A Petition of “Emanuell Fynche, Wm. Lewis Merchantes and Anne Webber Widow on the behalfe of themselves and others owners of the shipp called the _Benediction_” was presented to the Privy Council stating that the ship had been seized and detained by the French and kept at Dieppe where it was deteriorating. They asked to be allowed to sell her there.[47] The name of another woman ship-owner occurs in a case at Grimsby brought against Christopher Claton who “In the behalfe of his Mother An Alford, wid., hath bought one wessell of Raffe of one Laurence Lamkey of Odwell in the kingdome of Norway, upon wᶜʰ private bargane there appeares a breach of the priviledges of this Corporation.”[48]

Footnote 47:

_S.P.D._ ccxxxvi., 45, 12th, April, 1633.

Footnote 48:

_Hist. MSS. Com._, 14 Rep., VIII., p. 284, 1655.

In 1636 upon the Petition of Susanna Angell “widowe, and Eliz. her daughter (an orphan) of the cittie of London humbly praying that they might by their Lordshipps warrant bee permitted to land 14 barrels of powder now arrived as also 38 barrells which is daily expected in the _Fortune_ they paying custome and to sell the same within the kingdome or otherwise to give leave to transport it back againe into Holland from whence it came” the Officers of the customs were ordered to permit the Petitioners to export the powder.[49]

Footnote 49:

_S.P.D._ ccxcii., 24, March 23, 1636/7., _Proceedings of Gunpowder Commissioners_.

Women’s names appear also in lists of contractors to the Army and Navy. Elizabeth Bennett and Thomas Berry contracted with the Commissioners to supply one hundred suits of apparel for the soldiers at Plymouth.[50]

Footnote 50:

_S.P.D._ xx., 62, Feb. 9th, 1626.

Cuthbert Farlowe, Elizabeth Harper Widowe, Edward Sheldon and John Davis, “poore Tradesmen of London” petition “to be paid the £180 yet unpaid of their accounts” for furnishing the seamen for Rochelle with clothes and shoes “att the rates of ready money.”[51]

Footnote 51:

_S.P.D._ cxcvii., 64, July, 1631.

A warrant was issued “to pay to Alice Bearden £100 for certain cutworks furnished to the Queen for her own wearing.”[52]

Footnote 52:

_S.P.D._, clix., 27th Jan. 1630.

Edward Prince brought a case in the Star Chamber, v. Thomas Woodward, Ellenor Woodward, and Georg. Helliar defendants being Ironmongers for supposed selling of iron at false weights to undersell plaintiff. “Defendants respectively prove that they ever bought and sold by one sort of weight.”[53]

Footnote 53:

_S.P.D._, clxxxi., 138, 1630.

For her tenancy of the Spy-law Paper Mill, Foulis “receaved from Mʳˢ. lithgow by Wᵐ. Douglas Hands 85 lib. for ye 1704 monie rent. She owes me 3 rim of paper for that yeir, besydes 4 rim she owes me for former yeirs.”[54]

Footnote 54:

Foulis, Sir John, _Account Book_, 5th Jan., 1705.

Joan Dant was one of the few women “capitalists” whose personal story is known in any detail. Her husband was a working weaver, living in New Paternoster Row, Spital Fields. On his death she became a pedlar, carrying an assortment of mercery, hosiery, and haberdashery on her back from house to house in the vicinity of London. Her conduct as a member of the Society of Friends was consistent and her manners agreeable, so that her periodic visits to the houses of Friends were welcomed and she was frequently entertained as a guest at their tables. After some years, her expenses being small and her diligence great, she had saved sufficient capital to engage in a more wholesale trade, debts due from her correspondents at Paris and Brussels appearing in her executor’s accounts. In spite of her success in trade Joan Dant continued to live in her old frugal manner, and when she applied to a Friend for assistance in making her will, he was astonished to find her worth rather more than £9,000. He advised her to obtain the assistance of other Friends more experienced in such matters. On their enquiring how she wished to dispose of her property, she replied, “I got it by the rich and I mean to leave it to the poor.”

Joan Dant died in 1715 at the age of eighty-four. In a letter to her executors she wrote, “It is the Lord that creates true industry in his people, and that blesseth their endeavours in obtaining things necessary and convenient for them, which are to be used in moderation by all his flock and family everywhere.... And I, having been one that has taken pains to live, and have through the blessing of God, with honesty and industrious care, improved my little in the world to a pretty good degree; find my heart open in that charity which comes from the Lord, in which the true disposal of all things ought to be, to do something for the poor,—the fatherless and the widows in the Church of Christ, according to the utmost of my ability.”[55]

Footnote 55:

_British Friend_, II., p. 113.

Another venture initiated and carried on by a woman, was an Insurance Office established by Dorothy Petty. An account of it written in 1710 states that:—“The said _Dorothy_ (who is the Daughter of a Divine of the Church of _England_, now deceas’d) did Set up an _Insurance Office_ on _Births, Marriages, and Services_, in order thereby to serve the Publick, and get an honest Livelyhood for herself.... The said _Dorothy_ had such Success in her Undertaking, that more Claims were paid, and more Stamps us’d for Policies and Certificates in her Office than in all other the like Offices in _London_ besides; which good Fortune was chiefly owing to the Fairness and Justice of her Proceedings in the said Business: for all the Money paid into the Office was Entered in one Book, and all the Money paid out upon Claims was set down in another Book, and all People had Liberty to peruse both, so that there could not possibly be the least Fraud in the Management thereof.”[56]

Footnote 56:

_Case of Dorothy Petty_, 1710.

In 1622 the names of Mary Hall, 450 coals, Barbara Riddell, 450 coals, Barbara Milburne, 60 coals, are included without comment among the brothers of the fellowship of Hostmen (coal owners) of Newcastle who have coals to rent.[57] The name of Barbara Milburne, widow, is given in the Subsidy Roll for 1621 as owning land.[58] That these women were equal to the management of their collieries is suggested by the fact that when in 1623 Christopher Mitford left besides property which he bequeathed direct to his nephews and nieces, five salt-pans and collieries to his sister Jane Legard he appointed her his executrix,[59] which he would hardly have done unless he had believed her equal to the management of a complicated business.

Footnote 57:

_Newcastle and Gateshead, History of_, Vol. III., p. 242.

Footnote 58:

_Ibid._, p. 237.

Footnote 59:

_Ibid._, p. 252.

The frequency with which widows conducted capitalistic enterprises may be taken as evidence of the extent to which wives were associated with their husbands in business. The wife’s part is sometimes shown in prosecutions, as in a case which was brought in the Star Chamber against Thomas Hellyard, Elizabeth his wife and John Goodenough and Hugh Nicholes for oppression in the country under a patent to Hellyard for digging saltpetre ... “in pursuance of his direction leave and authority ... Nicholes Powell, Defendants servant, and the said Hellyard’s wife, did sell divers quantities of salt petre. More particularly the said Hellyard’s wife did sell to Parker 400 lbs. at Haden Wells, 300 or 400 lbs. at Salisbury and 300 or 400 lbs. at Winchester at £9 the hundred.” Hellyard was sentenced to a fine of £1,000, pillory, whipping and imprisonment.

“As touching the other defendant Elizabeth Hellyard the courte was fully satisfyed with sufficient matter whereupon to ground a sentence against the defendant Eliz. but shee being a wyfe and subject to obey her husband theyr Lord ships did forbeare to sentence her.”[60]

Footnote 60:

_S.P.D._, cclx., 21, 1634.

Three men, “artificers in glass making,” beg that Lady Mansell may either be compelled to allow them such wages as they formerly received, or to discharge them from her service, her reduction of wages disabling them from maintaining their families, and driving many of them away.[61] Lady Mansell submits a financial statement and account of the rival glassmakers’ attempts to ruin her husband’s business, one of whom “hath in open audience vowed to spend 1000li, to ruine your petitioners husband joyninge with the Scottish pattentie taking the advantage of your petitioners husbands absence, thinckinge your petitioner a weake woman unable to followe the busines and determininge the utter ruine of your petitioner and her husband have inticed three of her workemen for windowe glasse, which shee had longe kepte att a weeklie chardge to her great prejudice to supplie the worke yf there should be anie necessitie in the Kingdome,” etc., etc., she begs justice upon the rivals, “your petitioner havinge noe other meanes nowe in his absence (neither hath he when he shall returne) but onelie this busines wherein he hath engaged his whole estate.”[62]

Footnote 61:

_S.P.D._, cxlviii., 52, 1623.

Footnote 62:

_S.P.D._, dxxi., 147. Addenda Charles I., 1625.

Able business women might be found in every class of English society throughout the seventeenth century, but their contact with affairs became less habitual as the century wore away, and expressions of surprise occur at the prowess shown by Dutch women in business. “At _Ostend_, _Newport_, and _Dunkirk_, where, and when, the _Holland_ pinks come in, there daily the Merchants, that be but Women (but not such Women as the Fishwives of _Billingsgate_; for these _Netherland_ Women do lade many Waggons with fresh Fish daily, some for _Bruges_, and some for _Brussels_, etc., etc.) I have seen these Women-merchants I say, have their Aprons full of nothing but _English Jacobuses_, to make all their Payment of.”[63]

Footnote 63:

_England’s Way_, 1614. _Harleian Misc._, Vol. III., p. 383.

Sir J. Child mentions “the Education of their Children as well Daughters as Sons; all which, be they of never so great quality or estate, they always take care to bring up to write perfect good Hands, and to have the full knowledge and use of Arithmetick and Merchant Accounts,” as one of the advantages which the Dutch possess over the English; “the well understanding and practise whereof doth strangely infuse into most that are the owners of that Quality, of either Sex, not only an Ability for Commerce of all kinds, but a strong aptitude, love and delight in it; and in regard the women are as knowing therein as the Men, it doth incourage their Husbands to hold on in their Trades to their dying days, knowing the capacity of their Wives to get in their Estates, and carry on their Trades after their Deaths: Whereas if a Merchant in England arrive at any considerable Estate, he commonly with-draws his Estate from Trade, before he comes near the confines of Old Age; reckoning that if God should call him out of the World while the main of his Estate is engaged abroad in Trade, he must lose one third of it, through the unexperience and unaptness of his Wife to such Affairs, and so it usually falls out. Besides it hath been observed in the nature of Arithmetick, that like other parts of the Mathematicks, it doth not only improve the Rational Faculties, but inclines those that are expert in it to Thriftiness and good Husbandry, and prevents both Husbands and Wives in some measure from running out of their estates.”[64]

Footnote 64:

Child, Sir J., _A New Discourse of Trade_, pp. 4-5. 1694.

This account is confirmed by Howell who writes of the Dutch in 1622 that they are “well versed in all sorts of languages.... Nor are the Men only expert therein but the Women and Maids also in their common Hostries; & in Holland the Wives are so well versed in Bargaining, Cyphering & Writing, that in the Absence of their Husbands in long sea voyages they beat the Trade at home & their Words will pass in equal Credit. These Women are wonderfully sober, tho’ their Husbands make commonly their Bargains in Drink, & then are they more cautelous.”[65]

Footnote 65:

Howell, (Jas.), _Familiar Letters_, p. 103.

This unnatural reversing of the positions of men and women was censured by the Spaniard Vives who wrote “In Hollande, women do exercise marchandise and the men do geue themselues to quafting, the which customes and maners I alowe not, for thei agre not with nature, yᵉ which hath geuen unto man a noble, a high & a diligent minde to be busye and occupied abroade, to gayne & to bring home to their wiues & families to rule them and their children, ... and to yᵉ woman nature hath geuen a feareful, a couetous & an humble mind to be subject unto man, & to kepe yᵗ he doeth gayne.”[66]

Footnote 66:

Vives, _Office and Duties of a Husband_, trans. by Thos. Paynell.

The contrast which had arisen between Dutch and English customs in this respect was also noticed by Wycherley, one of whose characters, Monsieur Paris, a Francophile fop, describes his tour in Holland in the following terms: “I did visit, you must know, one of de Principal of de State General ... and did find his Excellence weighing Sope, jarnie ha, ha, ha, weighing sope, ma foy, for he was a wholesale Chandeleer; and his Lady was taking de Tale of Chandels wid her own witer Hands, ma foy; and de young Lady, his Excellence Daughter, stringing Harring, jarnie ... his Son, (for he had but one) was making the Tour of France, etc. in a Coach and six.”[67]

Footnote 67:

Wycherley, _The Gentleman Dancing Master_, p. 21.

The picture is obviously intended to throw ridicule on the neighbouring state, of whose navy and commercial progress England stood at that time in considerable fear.

How rapidly the active, hardy life of the Elizabethan gentlewoman was being transformed into the idleness and dependence which has characterised the lady of a later age may be judged by Mary Astell’s comment on “Ladies of Quality.” She says, “They are placed in a condition which makes that which is everyone’s chief business to be their only employ. They have nothing to do but to glorify God and to benefit their neighbours.”[68] After a study of the Restoration Drama it may be doubted whether the ladies of that period wished to employ their leisure over these praiseworthy objects. But had they the will, ignorance of life and inexperience in affairs are qualifications which perhaps would not have increased the effectiveness of their efforts in either direction.

Footnote 68:

Astell, (Mary), _A Serious Proposal_, p. 145, 1694.

The proof of the change which was taking place in the scope of upper-class women’s interests does not rest only upon individual examples such as those which have been quoted, though these instances have been selected for the most part on account of their representative character.

It is quite clear that the occupation of ladies with their husband’s affairs was accepted as a matter of course throughout the earlier part of the century, and it is only after the Restoration that a change of fashion in this respect becomes evident. Pepys, whose milieu was typical of the new social order, after a call upon Mr. Bland, commented with surprised pleasure on Mrs. Bland’s interest in her husband’s affairs. “Then to eat a dish of anchovies,” he says “and drink wine and syder and very merry, but above all things, pleased to hear Mrs. Bland talk like a merchant in her husband’s business very well, and it seems she do understand it and perform a great deal.”[69] The capacity of a woman to understand her husband’s business seldom aroused comment earlier in the century, and would have passed unnoticed even by many of Pepys’ contemporaries who lived in a different set. Further evidence of women’s business capacity is found in the fact that men generally expected their wives would prove equal to the administration of their estates after their death, and thus the wife was habitually appointed executrix often even the sole executrix of wills. This custom was certainly declining in the latter part of the century. The winding up of a complicated estate and still more the prosecution of an extensive business, could not have been successfully undertaken by persons who hitherto had led lives of idleness, unacquainted with the direction of affairs.

Footnote 69:

Pepys, (Sam.), _Diary_, Vol. II., p. 113, Dec. 31, 1662.

That men did not at this time regard marriage as necessarily involving the assumption of a serious economic burden, but on the contrary, often considered it to be a step which was likely to strengthen them in life’s battles, is also significant. This attitude was partly due to the provision of a dot by fathers of brides, but there were other ways in which the wife contributed to the support of her household. Thus in a wedding sermon woman is likened to a merchant’s ship, for “She bringeth her food from far” ... not meaning she is to be chosen for her dowry, “for the worst wives may have the best portions, ... a good wife tho’ she bring nothing in with her, yet, thro’ her Wisdom and Diligence great things come in by her; she brings in with her hands, for, _She putteth her hands to the wheel_.... If she be too high to stain her Hands with bodily Labour, yet she bringeth in with her Eye, for, _She overseeth the Ways of her Household_, ... and eateth not the Bread of _Idleness_.” She provides the necessities of life. “If she will have Bread, she must not always buy it, but she must sow it, and reap it and grind it, ... She must knead it, and make it into bread. Or if she will have Cloth, she must not always run to the Shop or to the score but she begins at the seed, she carrieth her seed to the Ground, she gathereth Flax, of her Flax she spinneth a Thread, of her Thread she weaveth Cloth, and so she comes by her coat.”[70]

Footnote 70:

Wilkinson, (Robert), _Conjugal Duty_, pp. 13-17.

The woman here described was the mistress of a large household, who found scope for her productive energy within the limits of domestic industry, but it has been shown that the married woman often went farther than this, and engaged in trade either as her husband’s assistant or even on her own account.

The effect of such work on the development of women’s characters was very great, for any sort of productive, that is to say, creative work, provides a discipline and stimulus to growth essentially different from any which can be acquired in a life devoted to spending money and the cultivation of ornamental qualities.

The effect on social relations was also marked, for their work implied an association of men and women through a wide range of human interests and a consequent development of society along organic rather than mechanical lines. The relation between husband and wife which obtained most usually among the upper classes in England at the opening of the seventeenth century, appears indeed to have been that of partnership; the chief responsibility for the care of children and the management and provisioning of her household resting on the wife’s shoulders, while in business matters she was her husband’s lieutenant. The wife was subject to her husband, her life was generally an arduous one, but she was by no means regarded as his servant. A comradeship existed between them which was stimulating and inspiring to both. The ladies of the Elizabethan period possessed courage, initiative, resourcefulness and wit in a high degree. Society expected them to play a great part in the national life and they rose to the occasion; perhaps it was partly the comradeship with their husbands in the struggle for existence which developed in them qualities which had otherwise atrophied.

Certainly the more circumscribed lives of the Restoration ladies show a marked contrast in this respect, for they appear but shadows of the vigorous personalities of their grandmothers. Prominent amongst the many influences which conspired together to produce so rapid a decline in the physique, efficiency and morale of upper-class women, must be reckoned the spread of the capitalistic organisation of industry, which by the rapid growth of wealth made possible the idleness of growing numbers of women. Simultaneously the gradual perfecting by men of their separate organisations for trade purposes rendered them independent of the services of their wives and families for the prosecution of their undertakings. Though the stern hand of economic necessity was thus withdrawn from the control of women’s development in the upper classes, it was still potent in determining their destiny amongst the “common people,” whose circumstances will be examined in detail in the following chapters.

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