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Private Women, Public Needs: Middle-Class Widows in Victorian England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Cynthia Curran
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I do find this life so hard to bear. It is so dead & [Aunt] M so dictatorial yet I see nothing better could happen. Oh! for a home of my own….[A] wet day and oh! so dreary. [Aunt] Maria & I have fought like two tigers. How I hate it all, this dreary weary life. Oh! for a nice change or money to leave here. [Thursday, May 15, and Tuesday, May 20, 1879].

So read a typical entry from the diary of the widowed Mrs. L.M. Simpson, born in 1839. The continuing refrains of a lack of money, a sense of not belonging and an unwilling dependence reverberate throughout her diary. She celebrated (if that is not too cheerful a term for such a morose notation) her fortieth birthday while writing in this journal, and noted the passing of her former wedding anniversary and the birthdays of each of her deceased parents. The most important entries dealt with persons who are no longer with her and happy events that took place long ago. This lamentation from Mrs. Simpson provides a startling contrast with the picture presented by a large group of historians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , Summer 1993 , pp. 217 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1993

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References

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61 It is very difficult to derive a reliable number of middle-class widows who finally were forced to turn to Poor Relief, but there are numerous and unmistakable instances of this happening. Removal records for widows are most likely to indicate the profession of the deceased husbands along with income, but more sources have survived for some unions than for others. For example, from the King's Lynn Union, Christiana McDowell, widow of William who was a Customs House officer, applied for assistance on 8 November 1851, and Charlotte Lawson, aged 26 with one small child, widow of Robert a schoolmaster, asked for assistance on 2 June 1852 (Norwich Record Office, King's Lynn Union Case Books 1849-66, p. 211Google Scholar).