A measure of worth: Probate valuations, personal wealth and indebtedness in England, 1810-40

Historical Research

Volumn 79, Issue 205, 2006, Pages 383-403

  Owens, Alastair ^a   Green, David R ^b   Bailey, Craig ^b   Kay, Alison C ^b  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34347280994     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2006.00365.x     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. W. D. Rubinstein, The Victorian middle classes: wealth, occupation and geography', Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxx (1977), 602-23;
2. W. D. Rubinstein, 'Wealth, elites and the class structure of modern Britain', Past & Present, lxxvi (1977), 99-126;
3. W. D. Rubinstein, Men of Property: the Very Wealthy in Britain since the Industrial Revolution (Beckenham, 1981);
4. W. D. Rubinstein, Wealth and Inequality in Britain (1986)
5. W. D. Rubinstein, Elites and the Wealthy in Modern British History (Brighton, 1987)
6. W. D. Rubinstein, 'The size and distribution of the English middle classes, in 1860", Hist. Research, 1xi (1988), 65-89;
7. W. D. Rubinstein, 'The structure of wealthholding in Britain, 1809-39: a preliminary anatomy'. Hist. Research, lxv (1992). 74-89;
8. W. D. Rubinstein, Capitalism, Culture and Decline in Britain, 1750-1990 (1993);
9. W. D. Rubinstein, 'The role of London in Britain's wealth structure', in Urban Fortunes: Property and Inheritance in the Town, 1700-1900, ed. J. Stobart and A. Owens (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 131-48.
10. A number of often repetitive and mutually derivative critiques of Rubinstein's work and, more specifically, his use of probate statistics have been published (M. J. Daunton, '"Gentlemanly capitalism" and British industry, 1820-1914', Past & Present, cxxii (1988), 119-58;
11. M.J. Daunton, '"Gentlemanly capitalism" and British industry, 1820-1914: reply", Past & Present, cxxxii (1991), 170-87;
12. S. Gunn, 'The "failure" of the British middle class: a critique', in The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the 19th-Century Middle Class, ed. J. Wolff and J. Seed (Manchester, 1988), pp. 17-43;
13. T. Nicholas, 'Wealth making in 19th- and early 20th-century Britain: industry v. Commerce and finance', Business Hist., xli (1999), 16-36;
14. R. Pahl, 'New rich, old rich, stinking rich", Social Hist., xv (1990), 229-39;
15. J. Seed, 'From "middling sort" to middle class in late-18th- and early- 19th-century England", in Social Orders and Social Classes in Europe since 1500: Studies in Social Stratification, ed. M. L. Bush (1992). pp. 114-35)
16. W. D. Rubinstein, '"Gentlemanly capitalism" and British industry, 1820-1914: a comment', Past & Present, cxxxii (1991), 150-69
17. W. D. Rubinstein, 'Stinking rich: a response', Social Hist., xvi (1991), 359-65;
18. W. D. Rubinstein, 'Wealth making in the late-19th and early-20th centuries: a response', Business Hist., xlii (2000), 141-54).
19. Other important works discussing the use and reliability of probate values include W. D. Rubinstein and D. Duman. 'Probate records as a tool for the historian', Local Historian, xi (1974), 68-73;
20. and several articles that have appeared in this journal (B. English, 'Probate valuations and the death duty registers", Hist. Research, lvii (1984), 80-91;
21. M. Collinge, 'Probate valuations and the death duty registers: some comments", Hist. Research, 1x (1987), 240-5;
22. and D. R. Green and A. Owens, 'Metropolitan estates of the middle class, 1800-50: probates and death duties revisited', Hist. Research, lxx (1997), 294-311).
23. English, p. 83.
24. For example, between 1855 and 1859 Rubinstein suggests that there were 241 individuals who left probated fortunes of £100,000 or more (Rubinstein, 'Role of London", p. 137). According to the figures in B. Mitchell and P. Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962), p. 34, the rounded total number of deaths in Britain over those five years was 2, 433, 700. Even allowing for some margin of error, this means that Rubinstein's data only cover approximately 0.01 per cent of the population that died in those years.
25. B. Mitchell and P. Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962), p. 34
26. J. Foster, Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution: Early Capitalism in Three English Towns (1974).
27. J. Field, 'Wealth, styles of life and social tone among Portsmouth's middle class', in Class, Power and Social Structure in British 19th-century Towns, ed. R. J. Morris (Leicester, 1986), pp. 67-106. Other studies that have used probate records in a similar way include.
28. S. Gunn 'The Manchester middle class, 1850-80' (unpublished University of Manchester Ph.D. thesis, 1992), pp. 147-52
29. J. R. Vincent, Pollbooks: How Victorians Voted (Cambridge, 1967). pp. 36-46
30. R.J. Morris 'Reading the will: cash economy capitalists and urban peasants in the 1830s", in The Making of the British Middle Class? Studies in Regional and Cultural Diversity since the i8th Century, ed. A.J. Kidd and D. Nicholls (Stroud, 1998), pp. 113-29
31. Daunton, '"Gentlemanly capitalism": reply', p. 71.
32. Reports by the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the practice and jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts in England and Wales (Parl. Papers 1831-2 (199), xxiv), evidence of Thomas Gwynne. Esq., p. 81.
33. Reports by the Royal Commissioners into ecclesiastical courts, evidence of Thomas Gwynne, Esq., p. 81.
34. L. Shelford, The Law Relating to the Probate, Legacy and Succession Duties (1855), p. 57.
35. Rubinstein and Duman, p. 70, However, English is sceptical about the extent to which such average figures are meaningful (see English, p. 83).
36. For further discussion, see English, pp. 82-3; and Green and Owens, p. 300. The bandings and rates of duty payable were altered three times over the course of the period covered by this article (see English, p. 82, n. 13).
37. English, pp. 83, 87-9. It should be noted that in response to English, Collinge, p. 245, challenges this view that the death duty registers - the IR 26 series of records preserved at The National Archives of the U.K.: Public Record Office, Kew - can be used 'successfully in a majority of cases to calculate precise levels of indebtedness'.
38. For discussion of aristocratic indebtedness, see D. Cannadine, 'Aristocratic indebtedness in the 19th century: the case reopened'. Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxx (1977), 624-50;
39. D. Cannadine, 'Aristocratic indebtedness in the 19th century: a restatement", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxxiii (1980), 569-73;
40. D. Cannadine, Aspects of Aristocracy: Grandeur and Decline in Modern Britain (New Haven. Conn., 1994);
41. H. J. Habakkuk, Marriage, Debt and the Estates System: English Landownership, 1650-1950 (Oxford. 1994);
42. D. Spring. "The English landed estate in the age of coal and iron: 1830-1880'. Jour. Econ. Hist., xi (1931), 3-24:
43. D. Spring, The English Landed Estate in the 19th Century: its Administration (Baltimore. Md., 1963);
44. D. Spring, 'Arsitocratic indebtedness in the 19th century: a comment", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxxiii (1980), 564-73, at pp. 564-8;
45. F. M. L. Thompson, 'The end of a great estate', Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., viii (1955), 35-52;
46. F. M. F. Thompson, English Landed Society in the 19th Century (1963).
47. Cannadine. 'Aristocratic indebtedness... reopened', p. 649.
48. See, e.g., D. A. Kent, 'Small businessmen and their credit transactions in early 19thcentury Britain', Business Hist., xxxvi (1994), 47-64;
49. S. Marriner, 'English bankruptcy records and statistics before 1850', Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxxiii (1980), 351-66.
50. Although dealing with the 18th century the following are also relevant: B. L. Anderson. 'Money and the structure of credit in the i8th century', Business Hist., xii (1970), 85-101;
51. and J. Hoppitt, Risk and Failure in English Business, 1700-1800 (Cambridge, 1987).
52. For the 2nd half of the 19th century, see P. A. Johnson, 'Small debts and economic distress in England and Wales. 1857-1913", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xlvi (1993), 65-87.
53. Kent, p. 61.
54. R. J. Morris 'The middle class and the property cycle during the Industrial Revolution', in The Search for Wealth and Stability: Essays in Economic and Social History Presented to M. W. Flinn, ed, T. C. Smout (Basingstoke, 1979). pp. 91-113.
55. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the state became increasingly keen to tax the transmission of wealth at death. The scope of death duties was progressively extended during the 19th century to incorporate a wider range of assets and capital gains. With the passing of the Succession Duty Act of 1853 (16 & 17 Vict., c. 51) all estate (including real property) to which an individual succeeded was liable for taxation. In 1894 estate duty effectively combined legacy and succession duty into a single tax as Lord Harcourt attempted to tighten the state's fiscal grip on the transmission of wealth. For further discussion of the reform of death duties, see M.J. Daunton. The political economy of death duties: Harcourt's budget of 1894', in Landed Society in Britain, 1700-1914: Essays in Honour of F. M. L. Thompson, ed. N. B. Harte and R. E. Quinault (Manchester, 1996), 137-71;
56. M. J. Daunton, Trusting Leviathan: the Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1799-1914 (Cambridge, 2001).
57. 55 Geo. III, c. 52.
58. Daunton, 'Political economy of death duties', p. 142.
59. The residuary accounts are the focus of ongoing research by three of the authors of this article - David R. Green, Alison Kay and Alastair Owens - along with Josephine Maltby (Sheffield University) and Janette Rutterford (Open University), as part of an E.S.R.C.-funded project, 'Women investors in England and Wales, 1870-1930' (Award RES - 000-23-1435). The accompanying inventory material is being analysed by Lesley Hoskins (Queen Mary, University of London), as part of an E.S.R.C. CASE studentship, 'Homemaking and material culture in 19th-century England and Wales', under the supervision of Alastair Owens and the Geffrye Museum, London.
60. Return of Number of Probates and Admins. granted by the Courts in England and Wales, 1839-41 (Parl. Papers 1842 (450), xxvi). pp. 490-1.
61. Green and Owens, p. 297.
62. The percentage is derived from dividing the number of wills and administrations proved by the P.C.C. in 1840 by the number of stamps issued for probate in England and Wales in that year (Return of Number of Probates and Admins., 1839-41. pp. 490-1; Return of the number of probates and administration stamps sold in England and Wales in the years 1839, 1840 and 1841 (Parl. Papers 1843 (58), xxx), p. 603).
63. Number of Wills and Administrations during the Year 1858 (Parl. Papers 1861 (2897), xvii, p. 181),
64. For further discussion of this point, see M. Finn. The Character of Credit: Personal Debt in English Culture, 1740-1914 (Cambridge, 2003).
65. C. Wiskin. 'Women, finance and credit in England, c. 1780-1826' (unpublished University of Warwick Ph.D. thesis. 2000).
66. See T.N.A.: P.R.O.. IR 19/37 (1820), Register CD, fo. 1326.
67. T.N.A.: P.R.O., 1R 19/35 (1820), Register NR, fo. 702, Catherine Raynbird.
68. T.N.A.: P.R.O., IR 19/81 (1840). Register HJ, fo. 539.
69. T.N.A.: P.R.O., IR 19/58, Register PC, fo. 357.
70. T.N.A.: P.R.O., IR 19/34, accounts of Samuel Cornish (register and folio number left blank).
71. See T. Gwynne, The Law Relating to the Duties on Probates and Letters of Administration (1834), p. 232.
72. See Finn, pp. 17-21, 280-9.