1866 – A fascinating solicitation from a Liverpool merchant seeking funds to purchase a boarding house so the destitute widow of a former New York City associate could support her familyJas. Moore
Liverpool. This one-page printed solicitation was privately sent by Jas. Moore of Liverpool on October 15th, 1866, to George Rogers of Lee, Kent (a small parish southeast of London). In nice shape.
The notice reads::“A Lady, the Widow of a New York Merchant, is obliged to make her destitution known, in the earnest hope that it may attract the notice of the benevolent public and so enable her to maintain herself and her three children.
“Her case is now very deplorable. The particulars of which are known to Mr. Jas. Moore, Fenwick Chambers, Liverpool, who has been acquainted with the Lady more than fifty years, and by whom all contributions will be most thankfully and gratefully received.
“The desired object is to raise a sum sufficient to take a Hour for Borders or pupils for which she is so well qualified; an arrangement that would enable her to educate her two daughters and afford a mother’s home for son, who through the kindness of a friend has just obtained a mercantile situation in London, whilst he is a boy of such promise as gives good hope for his being able to support his widowed mother not long since.”
At the time, running a boarding house was one of the few respectable occupations open to women of "reduced circumstances." Many widow transformed their family home into boarding houses. In large cities, they could earn very comfortable livings, up to $500 per year ($125,000 today). However, widows without homes might face serious financial hurdles as suitable houses might cost as much a s $9,000 ($2 million today).
In 1870, it was difficult, but far from impossible, for a widow to obtain a bank loan. As "femmes soles," they were considered separate legal entities and not bound by the legal and fiscal constraints as married women, and able to own property and manage their own finances. In this instance, the widow in question likely had some support in New York from friends and old relatives, and even if Moore could not the raise funds for her to purchase a boarding house outright, she probably would have been able to secure a loan, as cosignatory lending was a common practice in the 19th-century United States and loans were often based on personal trust and community relationships.
(For more formation see, Staton’s “Back in the day, boarding houses offered low-income rentals in Wilmington” in the Wilmington Star News (6 June 24), Koontz’s “In the aftermath of the Civil War, Hagerstown's Miller House became a symbol of change” in the Hagerstown Harold-Mail (11 May 25), Whiteacre’s “Behind the Doors, Up the Stairs, on Seventh Street West” at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and Sabatier’s “When Could Women Open a Bank Account?” at BankBonus.com.)
Scarce. At the time of listing, nothing similar is for sale in the trade or has appeared at sale per the Rare Book Hub, or is in institutional collections per OCLC, however a woman’s boarding house ledger is held by the Indiana Historical Society.
#010688
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