Usury legislation, cash, and credit: the development of the female investor in the late Tudor and Stuart periods1

Judith Spicksley

Economic History Review, 2008, vol. 61, issue 2, 277-301

Abstract: This article uses testamentary evidence from Lincoln diocesan court between the 1570s and the 1690s to examine links between inheritance, a rise in money‐lending amongst single women, and an increase in the proportion of women that never married. Two trends emerge: first, more fathers after the 1570s chose to bequeath cash to their daughters; second, they were more likely to restrict access to this portion by age rather than marriage. Assisted by a softening of attitudes towards interest‐bearing lending, these changes offered some single women a measure of financial independence that may have impacted on their marriage decisions.

Date: 2008
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