Reading the Regency

Courtship - Dowries and Marriage Settlements

"He only wanted to aggrandise and enrich himself; and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds, were not quite so easily obtained as he had fancied, he would soon try for Miss Somebody else with twenty, or with ten.''
[Chapter 16, Emma, by Jane Austen]

To a modern audience, a man who needs to marry a wife with money might seem mercenary and unromantic. I'm sure, for some couples, marriage was nothing more than a business transaction where one or both families benefited from the couple's union.

However, it was also a natural extension of the desire of many in Regency England to either marry within their current social sphere or above it. Money was vital to provide for future generations, so a man who went looking for a wife with a generous dowry would have been considered prudent rather than mercenary.

Because of this, marriage to a daughter of a rich merchant, despite her connections with "trade" could be seen as a way of mending the finances of an impoverished peer or improving the prospects of a peer's younger son.

Dowries

"DOWER, (s.from the French douaire) A dowery, that which the wife brings to the husband in marriage, that which the widow possesses, the gift of a husband for a wife; endowment, gift.
DOWRY, (s.not so correct a spelling) A dower, a dowery."
[The new and complete dictionary of the English language, by John Ash, pub. 1795]

A Dowry was any asset that a young woman brought to her husband at the time of their marriage. The dowry could be any asset of value: cash, money invested in the funds, land or property. If in cash, it was usually spoken of as a lump sum rather than an annual income, while any property was referred to by the income it earned per year. It might also be used to refer to any settlement a husband made to a wife for her and their children's future comfort.

Although Dowery was the usual spelling around 1800, Dowry became the more common spelling by 1820. Between those years both forms were used.

Dowries for daughters were often provided from the money brought to the marriage by their own mother. A bride's dowry contributed to her new family's income during her lifetime and could help to finance their children's futures, so as Colonel Fitzwilliam says in Pride and Prejudice: not many men could afford to ignore a generous dowry.

When Mr Bennet married Miss Gardener, her father had left her a lump sum of four thousand pounds, which would supplement the Bennet estate of two thousand pounds a year.

That lump sum would be invested in the funds, at four or five per cent interest, and they would use the interest as family income while keeping the capital safe. In this case, the four thousand, invested at 5% interest, would add £200 per year to Mr. Bennet's income, giving them a total of £2,200 while Mr. Bennet was alive. This mixture of adding to the household income plus leaving a dowry or inheritance for children was what made dowries so attractive.

"She is turned three-and-twenty, and an heiress: but it was not her fortune I prized; had she been portionless, she would have been equally dear to me."
[De Clifford; or Passion more Powerful than Reason, a novel by Mrs Kennedy, pub. 1820]

Other words that meant the same as dowry were Portion and Fortune.

Someone who had a dowry would be described as being Dowered or Portioned, or having a Fortune.

If you had no dowry at all, you might be called Dowerless or Portionless.

When there were sons from a marriage, the sons would often be given their portion of the money when they reached 21 years, if the family could afford it. Alternatively, the parents could instead give the son the income from his portion until he inherited the lump sum at a later time, usually on the death of one or both parents. An heir to an estate was usually provided with income from an annuity until his father died and he became the owner of the estate.