“What Pin-Money You Will Have!” by Diana Birchall

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Mrs. Bennet’s famous reaction to Elizabeth’s marriage in Pride and Prejudice contains this rhapsody:  “Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane’s is nothing to it – nothing at all.”

Pin-money was money given to a wife for her private expenses.  Pins were expensive when introduced into England by Catherine Howard when she married Henry VIII, and so women needed an allowance to buy them. A will registered at York in 1542 reads, “I give my said doughter Margarett my lease of the parsonadge of Kirkdall Churche…to buy her pynnes withal.”

Jane Austen had little enough of an allowance, also referred to as pin money, of her own. Oliver MacDonough writes in Jane Austen: Real and Imagined Worlds: “Jane had nothing of her own beyond the pin-money allowed her by her father, which was probably only £20 a year. Twenty pounds was Cassandra’s annual allowance, to judge by Jane’s communication of 28 December 1798, written when Mr. Austen had been rendered temporarily euphoric by good news: ‘If you will send my father an account of your Washing & Letter expenses, & c, he will send you a draft for the amount of it, as well as for your next quarter [£5, to be paid on 1 January].’  It is unlikely that there would be any differentiation between the sisters’ pin-money. The principal charge on Jane’s allowance was materials for, and small items of, clothes. Only gloves, stockings and the like were purchaseable.  ‘I wish,’ she wrote once, ‘that such things [as gowns] were to be bought ready-made.’…Jane Austen’s correspondence certainly suggests that both women found it hard to make ends meet for their wardrobe.”

In What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew, Daniel Pool writes:  “Typically the bride’s family would have their lawyers negotiate with the husband’s lawyers, to get the husband to agree to grant her ‘pin money,’ which was a small personal annual allowance while he lived, a hefty chunk of property or money to support her after he died, and ‘portions’ of money for their children. All this would be written up in the ‘marriage settlement’ by the lawyers before anybody walked down any aisles.”

The Bennets were hardly in any situation to have lawyers “negotiate” when Elizabeth married Darcy. Undoubtedly, her uncle Gardiner, an attorney, handled the matter civilly [erratum:  It has been pointed out to me that Uncle Phillips was the attorney, not Uncle Gardiner, but I still think Gardiner would have been the one to help Mr. Bennet settle the matter!]  and all would have gone very smoothly as the gentlemen, Darcy and Mr. Gardiner, liked each other and got on well. Darcy would have been generous with Elizabeth, of course, and proof that he was (if any is needed) is seen in the description of how Elizabeth was able to aid Lydia and Wickham out of her pin-money:

Lydia wrote, “’It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year: but, however, do not speak to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.’ As it happened that Elizabeth had much rather not, she endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every intreaty and expectation of the kind.” 

In other words, she made sure that Lydia and Wickham knew they could not expect a regular income from her. Still, “Such relief, however, as it was in her power to afford, by the practice of what might be called economy in her own private expenses, she frequently sent them. It had always been evident to her that such an income as theirs, under the direction of two persons so extravagant in their wants, and heedless of the future, must be very insufficient to their support; and whenever they changed their quarters, either Jane or herself were sure of being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging their bills.”

How much pin-money would Lizzy have had? Jane Austen does not name a figure, but we know Darcy’s income was £10,000 a year, and he was a liberal man.  Perhaps the closest clue we have is in Jane Austen’s own juvenilia. When Mary in The Three Sisters is asked to marry rich, rude old Mr. Watts, her mother bargains:

“’Remember the pin-money; two hundred a year.’

‘A hundred and seventy-five, Madam.’

‘Two hundred indeed, Sir’ said my Mother.”

Mr. Watts is described by young Mary as an “old man” (thirty-two!), “extremely disagreeable…ill tempered and peevish, extremely jealous, and so stingy that there is no living in the house with him.” However, he “has a large fortune and will make great Settlements on me; but then he is very healthy.”

Yet later in the story we learn that Mr. Watts is not so wealthy as all that; Mary’s more sensible sister Sophia reveals that if Mary turns him down, she will not accept him:  “My determination is made. I never would marry Mr. Watts, were Beggary the only alternative. So deficient in every respect! Hideous in his person, and without one good Quality to make amends for it. His fortune, to be sure, is good. Yet not so very large! Three thousand a year. What is three thousand a year? It is but six times as much as my Mother’s income. It will not tempt me.”

Three thousand pounds is less than Mr. Bingley’s fortune, and less than a third of Mr. Darcy’s.  So, if Mary’s mother was trying to persuade Mr. Watts to give her daughter £200 pin money a year, and he was famously stingy, it’s not impossible that Mr. Darcy might bestow five hundred or more on Lizzy.  It is true her expenses will be large, owing to the state she must keep up as his wife, in matters of dress and table; but her pin-money will assuredly be more than Lizzy herself would ever dreamed of having at her own disposal.  For when Mr. Collins proposes to her he reminds her of how little money she can expect: “the one thousand pounds in the four per cents., which will not be yours till after your mother’s decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to.” Since Mr. Bennet’s income is £2000 a year, Lizzy’s income should he die while she’s still single, would only be £40 or £50 a year (depending on whether it was invested at 4% or 5%). Her pin money during his lifetime would therefore have been the same as Cassandra Austen’s, who had been left a thousand-pound legacy by her fiancé, the same as Lizzy’s fortune, which gave her a £50 pound income.  Jane Austen writes:

 “Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs. Bennet and the children. But in what proportions it should be divided amongst the latter depended on the will of the parents. This was one point, with regard to Lydia, at least, which was now to be settled, and Mr. Bennet could have no hesitation in acceding to the proposal before him… He had never before supposed that, could Wickham be prevailed on to marry his daughter, it would be done with so little inconvenience to himself as by the present arrangement. He would scarcely be ten pounds a year the loser by the hundred that was to be paid them; for, what with her board and pocket allowance, and the continual presents in money which passed to her through her mother’s hands, Lydia’s expences had been very little within that sum.”

Not being extravagant like Lydia, nor her mother’s favorite, Lizzy certainly never ran through £100 a year like her younger sister. Perhaps half that, at most. So to be not only the mistress of Pemberley, but of a private income of perhaps several hundred pounds a year, would have seemed a very delightful circumstance to her – not to mention the happiness of a marriage which was to “show the admiring multitude what felicity in marriage really was.”

Let us imagine it:

Elizabeth seemed unusually thoughtful as she sat gazing into the fire after a Sunday night dinner at Pemberley.  She and Darcy had dined tete-a-tete, having, for once, no company, nor family either, Georgiana being visiting her aunt. Darcy had been cheerfully expanding on all the things about the grounds that he meant to do on the morrow, and it was with a slight start that he noticed that his wife’s eyes were not upon him, with her characteristic expression of mirth, delight, and affection, but upon the logs’ embers that were dying down, as a rainy November wind roared outside.

“My dear,” he said gently, “I knew I was a bore, but hoped you had not found it out within six months of our marriage.”

Her dark eyes met his with the familiar recognition of intimacy, and she gave an apologetic smile.  “A bore! Oh, how could you think so! Surely I have proved my affection sufficiently in those six months, that you need not doubt?”

“Certainly. But there seemed something you did not quite like in the fire, and if it does not trouble you to tell me, I should like to know what it was.”

Elizabeth got up, and walked over to him with a look somewhat of a repentant child.  She seated herself on a cushion beside his chair, and laid her head on his lap.

“But this is serious! I hope nothing is really the matter, Elizabeth. You may tell me. I hope you know you will find a heart ready to understand.”

She lifted her face. “Oh, of course I know that. No one could ever have shown more understanding, than yourself. Yet I must hesitate, for I have done something…something…”

“What can you have done?” he said affectionately, stroking her hair.

“Oh, don’t be kind to me, until you have heard. It is about my pin-money.”

Darcy threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Is it now? Have you spent all this quarter’s allowance and borrowed from Jane?”

She shook her head. “No, no, it is not that. Only…it is hard for me to tell you. You have a severe aspect at times, you know.”

“Well, come and sit on my lap. Perhaps then I will not seem so formidable. What is it, now? Are you wanting me to raise the amount? I don’t mind. I only made a stab at setting the sum, having no experience in knowing what a clever woman of good sense, charged with being mistress of such a house as this, would require.  I always expected to raise the sum as necessary, in accordance with your wishes, of course.”

“Oh, Darcy, you are not to be believed, in your unearthly benevolence!  As if I could ask you for more money when you have already dowered me like a princess. No, no indeed, I do not need or want any more; I would feel rich with a quarter the sum!  I only wonder why you do not press me for accounts, to know what use I make of your money.”

“I – ask you?” He looked truly astounded. “I would not presume to inquire into your private expenditures, any more than your private correspondence. Surely we trust one another, as we love one another. Do we not?” he asked a little anxiously.

She threw her arms around him and for a moment there were no sounds but murmurs, as Elizabeth showed him with her embrace how much she really did love him, and he returned the affection wordlessly but strongly, and with some relief.

“Well, what is this then?” he finally inquired gently. “Surely you are not afraid of me, Elizabeth.”

“No. I am only ashamed of what my behavior has been, in a matter that I ought to have told you about, whether you asked it or not.”

“Is it about your sister?” he asked shrewdly.

“Lydia! Yes. Although putting it like that, saying your sister, might show unwonted sagacity, since I have four sisters; you could not help being right,” she teased.

“But Lydia,” he pursued, “has, I take it, been troublesome? Surely that is not extraordinary, although I hope such an observation does not pain you.”

Elizabeth sighed. “You are right. There is no reason we should have expected her to cease being troublesome upon her marriage, even though she has been dealt with so generously; but I must tell you that when she and – and her husband, left their lodgings in Newcastle, it was one step ahead of the bailiff, for they did not pay their lodging-house, or several little matters of bills from eating-houses and shoe-makers in the town.”

“So you sent them money, did you?”

Elizabeth nodded, reluctantly. “I am so sorry. I know you would not wish any more of your money to go into the hands of – that man…”

“I foresaw that it would happen, of course,” he said after a moment.  “To whom could she apply, but you and Jane? And whatever sum you sent her, I have no doubt that Jane has sent three times as much.”

Elizabeth could not help laughing. “How well you know us!” she explained. “I sent twenty pounds, and Jane sent fifty.”

Darcy smiled, and gave her a reassuring caress. “Well, then that ought to keep them quiet for the next half year at least. We need say no more about it. It is not to be expected, or even wished, that you could keep from averting your sister’s  distress, inevitable as it will be with such an husband. I knew you would be sure to balance the thing sensibly, and with conscience, being of help to her, without allowing yourself to be used or drained. My love, we need say no more about it, need we? My trust in you is absolute.”

“Oh, Darcy, now I am ashamed of ever hesitating to tell you a thing.”

“I hope you never feel that way again. That, I believe, is what real marriage is all about.”

Elizabeth smiled, and laid her head on his shoulder, her last fears laid to rest.  He stood up and drew her by her hand, and picked up a candle to light them to bed.  “Only one thing more,” he mentioned, as they went.

“What is that?”

Do you need more pin-money? I never want you to feel constrained…”

“Oh, hang the pin-money! Such a silly, petty thing, pins and petticoats. Let us go to bed!” she cried.

au au lady catherine condescends bed

38 comments

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    • Debra Perrin on June 17, 2015 at 4:22 am
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    When I was first introduced to my husband’s family before we married, my mother in law still referred the the wages she earned from her part time job as her pin money. She died 6 years ago last month and your article brought back sweet memories of her using that phrase, thank you so much. By the way, she lived in Wales, UK.

      • beth on June 17, 2015 at 10:45 am
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      I study the gender wage gap in my research, and indeed, many of the remnants of what we see persisting between men and women’s wages comes from that presumption–that men require a “family wage” while women need “pin money”. It was commonly used around the turn of the century here in the states as well. 🙂

      1. Thanks for the information, Beth – I used to hear people use the term, though I haven’t in years. And it seems to mean different things too, ranging from what was settled on a wife, to just a loose term like “mad money.”

    1. A sweet story, Debra – interesting that the old ways continued within living memory!

  1. I thought it was her Uncle Phillips who was the attorney not her Uncle Gardiner.

      • Sheila L. M. on June 17, 2015 at 2:45 pm
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      My thoughts, exactly. Uncle Gardiner was in trade in London.

      1. I stand corrected, Sheila! Wrote my thoughts on the matter, below. Thanks!

    1. (Slaps forehead) Of course you are right! Mr. Phillips is the attorney – I had the impression Mr. Gardiner was one too, because Miss Bingley says, “”I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton,” and her sister answers, “Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.” Which could mean another attorney. But Jane Austen is specific, having Lizzy think, “these strong objections probably were, her having one uncle who was a country attorney, and another who was in business in London.” And Austen also explains that Mrs. Bennet, “had a sister married to a Mr. Phillips, who had been a clerk to their father, and succeeded him in the business, and a brother settled in London in a respectable line of trade.” So that settles that. However, I remain convinced that it was Mr. Gardiner who acted for Mr. Bennet in the marriage settlements, or helped and advised him. I don’t have the impression that Mr. Bennet would bring Mr. Philllips into it. He wasn’t the one who helped in the Lydia debacle – it was sensible Mr. Gardiner who was consulted.

        • Karen on November 3, 2017 at 7:37 am
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        I disagree. uncle Gardiner was Involved with Lydia because it was happening in London and everything that could be kept secret from Meryton needed to be. Gardiner had the knowledge and resources to search the city, and once she was found, his lawyers were instantly accessible. Calling Uncle Phillips into London at any point would be risky, Aunt Phillips would require explanations and that would never end well. Besides, Gardiner and Darcy left Bennet out of the real settlements anywayo it isnt really a question of which Uncle assisted Bennetm but rather which Uncle Darcy had access to. .

        For Elizabeth’s paperwork, Uncle Phillips would be the one on hand to deal with reviewing what Darcy’s lawyers sent, even if Uncle Gardiner might be consulted by mail. To not involve Uncle Phillips and instead draw out the process by mail or carrying the papers back and forth would have seemed odd.

        And in the case of straightforward mariage settlements, i am not sure Mr. Bennet would need advice beyond the technicalities of signing and filing the paperwork which require an attorney.. He is a bit lazy and inattentive to others generally, but he isnt incapable of understanding and negotiating when he wants to bother.

    • JoAnn Jones on June 17, 2015 at 8:32 am
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    I thought that Uncle Philips was an attorney and that Uncle Gardiner was a tradesmen. Mr. Darcy like Mr. Gardiner so I can see him feeling comfortable with negotiating Elizabeth’s settlement with him.

    • Kathy L Berlin on June 17, 2015 at 9:35 am
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    Wouldn’t her Uncle Phillips have been the attorney?

    A great article. It explains pin money better. I knew about the origin, but the amounts were a little unknow to me. Thanks!

    1. Thanks for commenting, Kathy. Glad if the pin money stuff was interesting, I enjoyed looking it up!

    • Kara Louise on June 17, 2015 at 11:54 am
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    Very interesting and enlightening! I enjoyed this. Thanks, Diana!

    1. Thank you so much, Kara, that means a lot!

    • Stephanie L on June 17, 2015 at 1:06 pm
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    My maternal grandmother was raised in a moneyed family (vs. the paternal side who were tenement farmers…lol) and would refer to her “allowance” from her father and then her husband. I always found that funny that in the day and age she lived, she was still getting her allowance. Makes sense in reflection, but seemed funny at the time.

    1. I know, because at least in the States we think of an “allowance” as what you give little kids. But they certainly did call what a woman was given, an allowance, in the old days. As in “dress allowance.” Interesting. Thanks, Stephanie.

      • Karen on November 3, 2017 at 7:39 am
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      Even in this day and age, my husband and i have, at times, given ourselves allowances, paid into individual accounts, rather than allowing both of us constant access to the joint account.

    • Sheila L. M. on June 17, 2015 at 2:48 pm
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    Yes, women were so dependent on men in those days and up until Women’s Lib and even beyond we continue to see inequalities. How many of us go home from a full day at our career and prepare dinner or do other chores – even take care of children. My husband was one who wanted an accounting of all I spent until I put my foot down. I assigned myself “pin money” and would not account to him about it.

  2. Good for you, Sheila! Even in my own lifetime, when I was a little girl in the 1950s, I remember girls talking about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Almost all of them said “I want to get married and be a mommy.” Older girls, in college, would talk about careers, but only “until I get married.” (Seriously!) By the time I was in high school, in the 1960s, things had already changed, and girls no longer talked about just working till they got married, they were starting to think about becoming lawyers. And my husband and I, married 40 years now, made changes such as you describe.

      • Sheila L. M. on June 18, 2015 at 10:34 am
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      Congratulations on your long marriage. We will be married 47 in August. And I do see most of the younger generation having both genders working with children in day care…or if they can afford it…a nanny. I babysit for my grandchildren a lot but not every day so they make other arrangements.

      1. Congratulations to you, too, Sheila, and many more happy years for you both! I don’t have grandchildren, only grandcats, as my son never married. As usual I found consoling and philosophical words in Jane Austen for my disappointment about not having grandkids. From P & P, where Lizzy tells Lady Catherine, “You both did as much as you could, in planning the marriage; its completion depended on others.” I don’t think there are wiser words anywhere about parents’ wishes and expectations of children.

    • Monica P on June 18, 2015 at 4:47 pm
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    My grandma told me once that when her children were small, my grandpa was always hassling her about the money she spent at the grocery store – for 2 adults and 4 kids- until she made him go shopping on his own and then he was like

    *cricket* *cricket*

    haha – and that was for household expenses, not personal ones.

      • Joana Starnes on June 18, 2015 at 6:35 pm
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      Hats off to your grandma, Monica 😀

    1. Uh huh! Wonderful story, Monica!

    • Joana Starnes on June 18, 2015 at 6:35 pm
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    Thanks for a wonderful post, Diana, it was such an eye-opener! I was fascinated with the figures, both from Jane Austen’s real life and that of her characters’, and the conversation between Elizabeth and her husband was so warm and affectionate! Just beautiful!

    1. I’m so thrilled you enjoyed it, Joana – that means a lot, coming from such an accomplished Jane-author as you! I enjoyed the research, but thought we’d have to have a little drama too!

    • Claudine DiMuzio on June 18, 2015 at 9:10 pm
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    Is this an excerpt from a P&P sequel? It’s lovely and the voice is so true to the spirit of the Darcys!!! Love this and thanks for sharing!!

  3. Thank you so much, Claudine – delighted you liked it! No, this was just a little one-off sketch, like most of the short stories and sketches I write for this website. But I am RETIRING (hear the bugles?) next week, and expect to write full time now – with more books in prospect! That’s really what I want to do. Thanks for asking.

    • Stella on June 19, 2015 at 2:38 pm
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    Interesting I use to sing a folk song in which the lover said “I give to you a paper of pins for that is how our love begins if you will marry me”. I. never understood why this was so until I read your article about the custom of pin money..

    1. Great observation, Stella, I remember that song but never connected it to pin money! Thanks!

    • Kathy on June 20, 2015 at 12:57 am
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    Thanks as always for your informative posts. I really enjoyed this one, which brings to mind all those interesting observations of how women have not been financially independent in society, for very long. I especially enjoyed the excerpt, so nice to see Darcy is not having to micromanage the pin money, and understands how Elizabeth feels she has to help Lydia. I heartily endorse the idea that you need to expand this into a longer story! Especially if you’re going to have all that free time! Congratulations on your retirement!

  4. Kathy, thank you SO much for the retirement congrats! Warner Bros gave me my retirement party yesterday and it was indescribably overwhelming to have such a fuss made – I admit I loved every minute! And now, I truly will have lots of time in which to write stories, which is exactly what I want to do most.

    • junewilliams7 on June 21, 2015 at 8:03 pm
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    I enjoyed reading the results of your research. Buying pins…. here I was thinking the women were buying pins and brooches, but instead they are simply buying papers of pins, presumably because they are losing their sewing pins in the carpet.

    Poor but observant Darcy: “Is it about your sister?” he asked shrewdly.

    I can just see you writing a series of stories in which each Bennet sister causes A Problem For Lizzy. Oh, and Mrs Bennet and Mr Bennet must also cause their share of problems for Lizzy.

    I look forward to your post-retirement writing career. Remember to use plenty of sparkles!

    1. Thanks for the wonderful idea, June – I may have to appropriate it! Lizzy’s sisters would give her sufficient problems to keep her occupied for quite some time. Plenty of sparkles, yes, ma’am!

      • Karen on November 3, 2017 at 8:15 am
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      Pins arent just for sewing! Womens (and girls) clothing was sometimes pinned together at certain points rather than having buttons and buttonholes, or laces. This reduced the time and effort in the making AND allowed for minor adjustments through the month or into the early stages of pregnancy. It made for a smooth, closely fitted and less noticeable closure than other methods. It also made it easier to pass clothes on to a wider size range of younger sisters, servants or poor relations. As the industrial revolution progressed, and machine made buttons, or hook and eye fasteners, became cheaper, and sewing machines reduced the time needed for sewing the garment itself, using pins as everyday clothing fastener dropped away because more time could be spent on the handwork required for fastenings..

      Look at paintings of woman of the era: apron tops are the most notable instance, notice there are often no neck straps or ties, the apron is pinnned up at the bodice and tied round the waist. Fichus might also be pinned into place, some styles of bodice are pinned. I am not sure, but i think even sometimes some trimmings on clothes or bonnets might be pinned on rather than sewn.

    • Deborah on June 25, 2015 at 6:55 am
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    Thank you so much for this informative post. I now better understand how “pin” money was figured out according to “salary” and what it was used for.

    1. Glad you liked it, Deborah – appreciate the comment!

  5. He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane.

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