查看文章

Drawing upon detailed research of inheritance practices in early nineteenth-century Stockport, this article examines how married men attempted to provide for their families after their death. It is argued that inheritance acted as an informal family welfare mechanism through which specific gender relations associated with middle-class households were reproduced. The evidence presented suggests that married male testators often used inheritance to try and 'fix' their wives into widowhood. Widows were frequently required to act as custodians of family property and maintain the domestic order. Access to property was carefully controlled and various legal devices were used to give authority to the process and ensure that the estate was used by widows to care and provide for children in certain, carefully stipulated ways. In making these claims, the article argues that recent revisionist studies that have attempted …