Women, ‘Usury’ and Credit in Early Modern England: The Case of the Maiden Investor

Abstract

In 1582, a great number of distressed subjects in Norfolk complained to the right honourable lords of the Privy Council, claiming that they were 'vexed, dispoyled, and many utterly consumed, by the rigor and Extremitie of John Ferror, whoes usurie, and extortion, oppression, imbracerie, and maintenance hath and doeth extende and stretch them selves, over a great parte of the same Count[y]'. 1 Ferrour it seemed had been causing trouble in a number of areas since at least 1580, but it was the claims about his usurious behaviour that are particularly interesting. Henrie Hayward, one of the parties appearing for the prosecution, claimed in article four of the case: Item this Ferrour (as is reported) in all his unlawfull accions of usury (wherwith he is reported to deale greatly) accustometh to get the parties bound over to one Marie Ho his wifes daughter and so by such fraudulent wayes he thinketh to avoide the statute him selfe, with which mayde the comon fame goeth Ferrour is naught with him self. 2

Review of periodical literature published in 2015

“…Women's management of household resources put them at the centre of credit relations which in turn stood at the centre of quotidian exchange and the heart of economic activity. Spicksley also advances our understanding of women's key role in the credit economy, examining in particular the prevalence of moneylending by single women. An analysis of inventories reveals that 63 per cent of single female testators were involved in the extension of formal or informal moneylending over the course of the seventeenth century.…”