To Her Credit: Women, Finance, and the Law in Eighteenth-Century New England Cities

311 Pages·2021·9.453 MB·English

by  Sara T. Damiano

To Her Credit
Studies in Early American Economy and Society
from the Library Com pany of Philadelphia
Cathy Matson, Series Editor
To Her Credit
Women, Finance, and the Law in Eighteenth- Century
New E ngland Cities
SARA T. DAMIANO
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of
Darlene Bookoff.
© 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2021
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper
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Johns Hopkins University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Damiano, Sara T., 1986– author.
Title: To her credit : women, finance, and the law in eighteenth- century
New England cities / Sara T. Damiano.
Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. | Series: Studies in
early American economy and society from the Library Com pany of Philadelphia |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020025877 | ISBN 9781421440552 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781421440569 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women— New England— Economic conditions— History—
18th century. | Credit— New England— History—18th  century. |
Capitalism— New England— History—18th  century. | Finance,
Personal— New England— History—18th  century. | Women—
Employment—N ew E ngland—H istory—18th c entury.
Classification: LCC HQ1438.N35 D36 2021 | DDC 330.90082/097409033— dc23
LC rec ord available at https://l ccn. l oc. g ov/ 2 020025877
A cata log rec ord for this book is available from the British Library.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information,
please contact Special Sales at [email protected].
Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials,
including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 p ercent post- consumer
waste, whenever poss ib le.
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword vii
Acknowl edgments ix
Introduction 1
1 “To the advantage of herself & the honorable support of her Family”:
Women and the Urban Credit Economy 20
2 “She Hath Often Requested the Sum”:
Credit Relations Outside of Court 50
3 “And Thereon She Sues”:
Debt Litigation, Lawyers, and Legal Practices 85
4 “I saw and heard”:
The Knowledge and Power of Witnesses 113
5 “Laboring under many difficulties and hardships”:
The Prob lem of Debt and Vocabularies of Grievance 141
6 “According to your judgments”:
Redefining Financial Work in the Late Eigh teenth C entury 172
Conclusion 198
Appendix:
Sources and Sampling for the Quantitative Analy sis
of Debt Cases 205
Notes 209
Essay on Sources 277
Index 285
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Series Editor’s Foreword
The series Studies in Early American Economy and Society, a collaborative ef-
fort between Johns Hopkins University Press and the Library Com pany of
Philadelphia’s Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES), is
honored to publish Sara Damiano’s study, To Her Credit: W omen, Finance, and
the Law in Eighteenth- Century New E ngland Cities. Based on a deep reading of
over three thousand cases of creditors’ suits to recover debts in Suffolk County,
Mas sa chu setts, and Newport County, Rhode Island, during the second half of
the 1700s, Damiano has discovered stunning evidence of what she calls the
“financial labor” of women who ubiquitously participated in shaping New
England’s economy. This occurred at a time and in a place that scholars typically
characterize as divided between the household- centered, consumption- oriented,
private lives of women and the public, production- directed, networked lives of
men. In contrast, Damiano insists that women were deeply involved in the
rec ord keeping, written communications, daily negotiations, and courtroom
proceedings that covered a wide scope of economic activities.
By the mid- eighteenth century, as house holds increasingly sought ways to
increase incomes in order to participate in the consumer revolution afoot,
women, argues Damiano, w ere active agents in the necessary activities of giving
credit and settling debts, borrowing and lending (among men and w omen),
deciding what to purchase and from whom, and making goods to sell over longer
distances. While most transactions involving w omen continued to be face- to-
face throughout the eigh teenth century, and while their formal literacy re-
mained less than that of men, w omen nevertheless employed the skills needed
to bargain, keep their h ouse hold and shop accounts, and interpret forms of writ-
ten credit. Such rec ords, as well as t hese w omen’s in- person appearances and
testimony, became a part of the debt litigation in county courts. In addition to
the everyday personal exchanges that took place on village and urban streets,
women’s financial labor became a vital part of court proceedings in New
England. While men were the ones who brought to court the overwhelming
number of suits to recover debts, the extensive paperwork generated by these
viii Series Editor’s Foreword
suits reveals that w omen played a central role in extending and receiving credit,
determining what kinds of economic decisions were made in house holds, and
participating in the continuous activities of market engagements. Women pur-
chased goods in shops, sent female servants or went themselves to collect debts,
made financial agreements with male producers and ser vice providers, petitioned
town councils and colonial legislatures regarding fiscal m atters, and engaged in
many other public economic transactions that are often seen by modern schol-
ars as pertaining solely to the realms of men alone.
Although it is clear from the laws and pamphlet lit er a ture of the late eigh-
teenth c entury that white New E ngland society sought to clearly delineate the
separation of men’s and w omen’s economic identities and bolster the restrictions
on married w omen u nder the laws of coverture, this study shows that, to a sur-
prising degree, widows and single women were borrowers and lenders, liti-
gants, witnesses, and market participants. In addition, while kinship continued
to play a central role in deciding how investments and businesses were struc-
tured, women— whether married or single— were sometimes equally as finan-
cially responsible as men for the well- being of f amily members and the transfer
of wealth to relatives. W idows and single w omen ran businesses as laundresses,
retailers, tavern keepers, and o wners of boarding houses, all of which required
ongoing decisions about using credit. When contests over debts arose, they
became actors in courtroom litigation. When they became clients, w omen di-
rected their attorneys and submitted bonds, promissory notes, account books,
and receipts that often were written in their own hand. When they were called
as witnesses, their testimony about economic agreements carried weight.
In all, Damiano gives us an array of compelling stories about women partic-
ipating in an economic environment steeped in credit and debt that were
drawn from court and probate rec ords, as well as the era’s private correspondence
and newspapers. We have not known much about such instances u ntil recently.
Cathy Matson, Series Editor
Richards Professor of American History Emerita, University of Delaware
Director, Program in Early American Economy and Society,
Library Com pany of Philadelphia
Acknowle dgments
This study is born from an insistence that, when we break down an act into its
component practices, the essential contributions of previously unseen individ-
uals come into view. That insight is even more true with the publication of my
book, which would not have been pos si ble without the generous help of numerous
individuals and institutions throughout my years of research and writing.
Drafting t hese acknowl edgments amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I am especially
appreciative of the support of mentors, colleagues, friends, and family, and of
the power of that support to transcend physical distance. It is a privilege to
express my gratitude h ere.
I made my first foray into the rec ords of the Newport County Courts as an
undergraduate at Brown University. There, Seth Rockman introduced me to
early American social history, and Mike Vorenberg patiently and attentively ad-
vised my sen ior thesis. I was fortunate to continue my studies at Johns Hop-
kins University, where, under the expert mentorship of Toby Ditz and Philip
Morgan, I completed the dissertation from which this book was developed.
Toby’s scholarship on gender and commerce remains a model for my own, and
I am grateful for her discerning editorial eye and steady confidence in my
abilities. I am equally grateful for Phil’s probing questions and intellectual
curiosity. Other Johns Hopkins faculty, especially Mary Fissell, François Fursten-
berg, John Marshall, Mary Ryan, and Judith Walkowitz, expanded my thinking
and offered valuable insights from a range of perspectives.
Cathy Matson has been a key supporter of this proj ect since its early stages,
when I first held a short- term fellowship in the Program in Early American
Economy and Society (PEAES) at the Library Com pany of Philadelphia. I have
benefited greatly from her deep knowledge, incisive critiques, and ongoing
encouragement. Perceptive feedback from the anonymous reader for Johns
Hopkins University Press guided my revisions, and Laura Davulis and Esther
Rodriguez efficiently steered my manuscript through the publication pro cess.
I am also grateful to graphic artist Kate Blackmer for her extraordinary attention