Nineteenth Century Women and Bank Accounts

What was supposed to be a bit of quick research for a future novel has turned into three blog posts: the first charting women’s rights, then female entrepreneurs in the nineteenth century, and now I can tell you where they put all their money. In a previous post I asked, did nineteenth century women have bank accounts?

Women and Money

• Women in the nineteenth century did manage their own finances, despite social and legal restrictions. 

• Women did learn about money and were able to become effective managers of their own finances. 

• They weren’t cautious or conservative either, some took financial risks in order to increase their profits.

But Did Women Have Bank Accounts? 

Yes, women in the nineteenth century did have bank accounts in their own name. Well, of course they did. Where else were they going to put all that lovely money they earned?

As one might expect, female bank account holders needed to have a certain amount of cash to be able to justify opening an account. Some banks did bar female account holders, while others encouraged females to bank with them.

Most working class women did not earn enough to justify a bank account because their pay was usually spent when it came in. Women of moderate means, such as widows, were usually encouraged by their advisors and trustees to buy bank shares for they were seen as a safe and stable income. Most female bank customers were those who had inherited larger amounts of capital from a deceased husband or relative.

An early source of evidence of female bank account holders is in the posession of The Royal Bank of Scotland. In their archives is a banker’s receipt for an account holder named Nell Gwyn. Yes, that is Nell Gwyn, actress and mistress to Charles II. In 1686 she deposited seventy-three pounds into her bank account, but was practically illiterate and only signed with her initials. 

How Did Women Get a Bank Account?

Single women and widows had the freedom to open a bank account in their own name. Married women, however, needed permission to open an account from their husband. (It’s not surprising that many women chose to remain single.) Banks required a married woman to get their husband to sign an authorisation form before they could open an account.  This remained unchanged in the UK until 1975, despite the introduction of the Married Women’s Property Act in 1882 when married women were finally permitted to keep any money they earned as their own. 

Women were not just bank customers either; some were partners. The most notable female banking partners became such through inheritance. Either their husband died, or a relative died, who then left them control of their shares. Sarah Child became a senior partner in Child & Co. in 1782 following the death of her husband, then passed her shares on to her granddaughter in 1793.

Harriet Coutts married Thomas Coutts, senior partner of Coutts & Co., in 1815. He died in 1822, and she inherited his shares, but she tended to let the partners run the business on her behalf. Her granddaughter, Angela Burdett, however, took an active role when she inherited Harriet’s shares in 1837. Despite opposition, Angela learned the business of banking, and used her fortune for philanthropic purposes.

I hope you have enjoyed this little trip into the legal rights and financial endeavours of women in the nineteenth century. If you have anything to add or counter, please leave a comment below. I love a good historical debate. 

Sources:

The Guardian, “Women’s Rights and their Money” August 2014

The Royal Bank of Scotland, Women in Banking

“Women and their money 1700-1950: Essays on Women in Finance”