1. Last will and testament of Ann Alford, proved at Birmingham on 15 May 1883. Copies of the last wills and testaments proved in Birmingham that are referred to in this paper are held in the Birmingham Archives and Heritage Department at Birmingham Central Library. All of the last wills and testaments are available to order from the Probate Service. All census records referred to have been accessed via but they are also available to view on microfiche at the Birmingham Central Library.
2. Last will and testament of Ann Alford; 1851 Census Class: HO107; Piece: 2054; Fo: 75; Page: 3; GSU roll: 87313; Bennett’s Business Directory for Birmingham 1902.
3. Traditional paradigms look at women as working-class employees (I. Pinchbeck,Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution 1750–1850(London, 1969); S. Alexander,Women’s Work in Nineteenth-century London; A Study of the Years 1820–1850(London,1983); J. Burnette, ‘The Wage and Employment of Female Day Labourers in English Agriculture, 1740–1850’,Econ. Hist. Rev., 57 (2004), 664–90; E. Jordan, ‘The Exclusion of Women from Industry in Nineteenth-Century Britain’,Comparative Studies in Soc. and Hist., 31 (1989), 273–96), or as supressed members of the middle class (L. Davidoff and C. Hall,Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780–1850(2nd edn, London, 2002).
4. Aston J. ‘Female Business Owners in England 1849–1901’ (University of Birmingham Ph.D. thesis, forthcoming).
5. Davidoff and Hall,Family Fortunes.