In 1636 upon the Petition of Susanna Angell “widowe, and Eliz. her daughter (an orphan) of the cittie of London humbly praying that they might by their Lordshipps warrant bee permitted to land 14 barrels of powder now arrived as also 38 barrells which is daily expected in the Fortune they paying custome and to sell the same within the kingdome or otherwise to give leave to transport it back againe into Holland from whence it came” the Officers of the customs were ordered to permit the Petitioners to export the powder.[[49]]
Women’s names appear also in lists of contractors to the Army and Navy. Elizabeth Bennett and Thomas Berry contracted with the Commissioners to supply one hundred suits of apparel for the soldiers at Plymouth.[[50]]
Cuthbert Farlowe, Elizabeth Harper Widowe, Edward Sheldon and John Davis, “poore Tradesmen of London” petition “to be paid the £180 yet unpaid of their accounts” for furnishing the seamen for Rochelle with clothes and shoes “att the rates of ready money.”[[51]]
A warrant was issued “to pay to Alice Bearden £100 for certain cutworks furnished to the Queen for her own wearing.”[[52]]
Edward Prince brought a case in the Star Chamber, v. Thomas Woodward, Ellenor Woodward, and Georg. Helliar defendants being Ironmongers for supposed selling of iron at false weights to undersell plaintiff. “Defendants respectively prove that they ever bought and sold by one sort of weight.”[[53]]
For her tenancy of the Spy-law Paper Mill, Foulis “receaved from Mʳˢ. lithgow by Wᵐ. Douglas Hands 85 lib. for ye 1704 monie rent. She owes me 3 rim of paper for that yeir, besydes 4 rim she owes me for former yeirs.”[[54]]
Joan Dant was one of the few women “capitalists” whose personal story is known in any detail. Her husband was a working weaver, living in New Paternoster Row, Spital Fields. On his death she became a pedlar, carrying an assortment of mercery, hosiery, and haberdashery on her back from house to house in the vicinity of London. Her conduct as a member of the Society of Friends was consistent and her manners agreeable, so that her periodic visits to the houses of Friends were welcomed and she was frequently entertained as a guest at their tables. After some years, her expenses being small and her diligence great, she had saved sufficient capital to engage in a more wholesale trade, debts due from her correspondents at Paris and Brussels appearing in her executor’s accounts. In spite of her success in trade Joan Dant continued to live in her old frugal manner, and when she applied to a Friend for assistance in making her will, he was astonished to find her worth rather more than £9,000. He advised her to obtain the assistance of other Friends more experienced in such matters. On their enquiring how she wished to dispose of her property, she replied, “I got it by the rich and I mean to leave it to the poor.”
Joan Dant died in 1715 at the age of eighty-four. In a letter to her executors she wrote, “It is the Lord that creates true industry in his people, and that blesseth their endeavours in obtaining things necessary and convenient for them, which are to be used in moderation by all his flock and family everywhere.... And I, having been one that has taken pains to live, and have through the blessing of God, with honesty and industrious care, improved my little in the world to a pretty good degree; find my heart open in that charity which comes from the Lord, in which the true disposal of all things ought to be, to do something for the poor,—the fatherless and the widows in the Church of Christ, according to the utmost of my ability.”[[55]]
Another venture initiated and carried on by a woman, was an Insurance Office established by Dorothy Petty. An account of it written in 1710 states that:—“The said Dorothy (who is the Daughter of a Divine of the Church of England, now deceas’d) did Set up an Insurance Office on Births, Marriages, and Services, in order thereby to serve the Publick, and get an honest Livelyhood for herself.... The said Dorothy had such Success in her Undertaking, that more Claims were paid, and more Stamps us’d for Policies and Certificates in her Office than in all other the like Offices in London besides; which good Fortune was chiefly owing to the Fairness and Justice of her Proceedings in the said Business: for all the Money paid into the Office was Entered in one Book, and all the Money paid out upon Claims was set down in another Book, and all People had Liberty to peruse both, so that there could not possibly be the least Fraud in the Management thereof.”[[56]]
In 1622 the names of Mary Hall, 450 coals, Barbara Riddell, 450 coals, Barbara Milburne, 60 coals, are included without comment among the brothers of the fellowship of Hostmen (coal owners) of Newcastle who have coals to rent.[[57]] The name of Barbara Milburne, widow, is given in the Subsidy Roll for 1621 as owning land.[[58]] That these women were equal to the management of their collieries is suggested by the fact that when in 1623 Christopher Mitford left besides property which he bequeathed direct to his nephews and nieces, five salt-pans and collieries to his sister Jane Legard he appointed her his executrix,[[59]] which he would hardly have done unless he had believed her equal to the management of a complicated business.