Middle-Class Widows in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Curran explains in her article the issues with how the middle classes could not provide for their families after death. ¹ This really provides the most important background to the later difficulties of widows. She explains the attitude of Victorian men in this social group was to be the breadwinner. Life insurance and pensions were not really available to them unless they were already rich. ²

She emphasises in her article that the need to maintain social status was often to the detriment of middle-class widows in Victorian Britain. She highlights that the Victorian attitude was to assume that poverty was the end result of failed economic discipline. The middle-class also were loathe to seek financial assistance from elsewhere, and were keen to retain their independence. ³

Finding Professions

Middle-class women, widows or not, were expected to be effectively invisible from public society. ⁴ Much of this had to do with the idea that they ought to live more leisurely, and working for a living would be beneath them. ⁵ They had to find work that would be in keeping with this ideal. If these widows had children, boarding extra children to teach them could be an option. But this came with issues. Not only did it require access to a house big enough to suit everyone, but there was competition from the ordinary local schools, which could be a disadvantage to both parties. ⁶

Nursing during the nineteenth century had a reputation for women involved in heavy drinking and promiscuity, which many middle-class women wanted to avoid. Curran argues that it was really Florence Nightingale that changed the social view of nurses at that time. She explained further that with many other professions, it required training, which many widows did not have. ⁷

Cynthia argues that it was unlikely for most widows to live with their relatives since the extra strain on the existing household would be too great, and mentions places such as Birmingham as well as the counties of Essex and Suffolk as examples from the 1851 census. ⁸ You may find her argument useful if your ancestors are from these areas, but of course, these examples may not apply to everyone.

Census Record Access

It is worth mentioning that when Curran’s article was published in 1993, access to the 1901 and 1911 census records was not available. The reason for this is that census records are sealed for 100 years from the public. Her article may have looked a little different if she had been able to compare the nineteenth century experience of widows with the early twentieth century. We can now search for our ancestors using those documents, which is to our advantage.

Conclusion

Similar to the blog I wrote on the Irish migrants in the nineteenth century, there are unfortunately a number of negative implications for the quality of life for widows at this time. Both their own attitudes and the circumstances of society meant there were few options available to them. I mainly focused on the social aspects of Cynthia’s article to give reasons behind why your widowed ancestors may be somewhat elusive. I will end by saying as well that the plight of these widows, while certainly difficult, would have probably been better than working-class women. Whatever may be said about the mystery of these widows, the poorest would have gone mostly unnoticed.

Source

Curran, Cynthia. ‘Private Women, Public Needs: Middle-Class Widows in Victorian England’. Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 25 (1993): 217-236. Accessed 10th April 2025. https://doi.org/10.2307/4051453.