Questions About The Mill on the Floss

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I don't know what kind of laws England had at the time, but I don't understand what right Tom had to bar Maggie from returning to their house after regaining the mill. The house was part of her patrimony just as it was his and belonged to them equally. How come Tom was in a position to decide who would be allowed to be there and who would not?

Spock's Cat I think the specific answer in this case is that Tom *bought* the mill; it was, therefore, his to decide who lived in it.

However, I would like to jus…moreI think the specific answer in this case is that Tom *bought* the mill; it was, therefore, his to decide who lived in it.

However, I would like to just add to the previous discussion about inheritance laws. It's not as simple as "women weren't allowed to inherit" because, in fact, they could. Indeed, the recurring motif of Aunt Glegg's insistence that she is respectable enough that she can leave goods and money to her family, including Maggie, is evidence that women could inherit. Another Victorian novel I have read recently, "North and South", is another example of a daughter inheriting on her father's death.

In fact, England was unique in the 1800s in that it did not have laws about who could inherit. Theoretically, you could give your money to anyone you liked. Yet, studies show that the most common pattern was to leave goods/wealth to the wife and *all* of the surviving children.*

Single women and widows were considered an independent legal entity and could own property and earn money and have control of it. Upon marriage, however, a woman's legal identity was subsumed under that of her husband. Thus, while she could technically "own" property and money from before her marriage, after marriage she no longer could have any control of it. This state of affairs was overturned in 1870 with the passing of the Married Women's Property Act.^

The situation in "Pride and Prejudice" is that there is an entailment (also called a "fee tail") on the Longbourne estate that limits who can inherit it, in that case, a male heir, but the limitation could be applied to anyone. Thus, the problem is not that women couldn't inherit but rather that whoever drew up the original will chose to limit who could inherit it.

*https://www.qmul.ac.uk/geog/news/2017...

^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married...

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