She being “Capable of Manadgement”: A case study of businesswomen in England's early eighteenth-century barge trade

Women's involvement in the transport business in the early eighteenth-century is considered through a case study of the barge trade of Surrey's Wey Navigation. Around one in 10 of the bargemasters, those running the trade, were women. Their backgrounds varied. Aged between their 20 s and 50 s, the bargemistresses appear in the records after the death of their husband, father or brother. Often trading for several years, the nature of their trade and its scale generally reflected that of their deceased male relative, commonly at a lower level, but still comparable to that of some male bargemasters. Some traded concurrently with but separately from another male relative. A range of evidence suggests the bargemistresses were an accepted part of the community of bargemasters and their recorded involvement in the business strongly supports their previous close (but usually invisible in the records) earlier involvement as not only as wives but also as daughters.