Metropolitan Estates of the Middle Class, 1800–50: Probates and Death Duties Revisited*

This article compares the nature of probate records with the death duty registers and explores some of the ways in which these data can be used to analyse wealth‐holding in London in the first half of the nineteenth century. Shortcomings of the probate data are discussed and suggestions made as to how such data can be interpreted in relation to wealth‐holding in the urban middle class. In the context of London, the paper demonstrates how probate records can be used to examine the geography of wealth, the relationships between occupations and wealth, and the role of gender.