Sunday, January 27, 2019

In Business - Sometimes Willed Their Business to Daughters

A Woman Shopkeeper of the 1790s, by an Unknown Artist.

Boston retailer Hannah Newman, who ran a shop with her daughter Susannah, bequeathed only paltry sums to her two sons In her will, Newman elaborated on the qualities her daughter possessed that earned her esteem and estate Susannah, Newman wrote, "has been a great Comfort, & Support to me, in my advanced age, & has taken Care of my Business, & by her Diligence & Industry," Hannah Newman will, SCPR, 51 657-660.  Male testators in colonial America often discriminated against daughters more than female testators.
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, (July 1995), 181-202.