Judy Clohessy
Judy Clohessy is a wife and mother who recently received an honours degree in History and English at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick city. She is currently studying the professional diploma in education at NUIGalway with the view to teaching both subjects along with making time to do some further writing.
An exploration of the role of material culture in the lives of
the early nineteenth-century middle class in Limerick
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw the emergence and subsequent rise of the middle class in Great Britain and Ireland. During the same period, the twin forces of capitalism and industrialisation prompted an expansion in the world of material goods, spawning a new culture of consumption amongst this prosperous and upwardly aspiring middle class. The ownership and accumulation of material assets was vitally important to the middle classes, serving as a means of both creating and maintaining class and status distinctions between the lower and middle classes. Moreover, conspicuous consumption also created distinctions between the groups and individuals within the layered middle class itself. As Linda Young has noted,‘the genteel habitus required the right kind of environment in which to live, shaped by a battery of material goods to enable management of the self-controlled body and presentation of the self-conscious social person.’[1]
This paper explores the role material culture played in the lives of the middle classes, looking at the various ways in which the middle classes, both individually and collectively projected their wealth and status in society, through the acquisition, possession and knowledge of material goods. It also illustrates how a vital aspect of middle-class consumption and material culture was not simply the ownership of goods, but the ownership of the ‘correct’ goods. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu whose work examines the role of culture in creating and preserving class distinctions, argues that attributes such as ‘taste’ and ‘distinction’ act as markers in delineating and maintaining social boundaries between status groups and, more fundamentally, between classes.[2] Therefore, discerning and informed
[1]Linda Young, Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century: America, Australia and Britain, (Hampshire 2003), p. 153.
[2] Simon Gunn, The public culture of theVictorian middle class: Ritual and authority in the English industrial city 1840-1914, (Manchester 2000), p. 4.
tastes were crucial in cultivating ‘correct’ consumption practices, requiring a comprehensive knowledge in choosing and using material goods, whether in fashion, dinner china or household furniture. This essay also looks at the relationship between consumption and middle-class respectability, and how both intersected in the workings of class at a local level. It also illustrates how middle-class women wielded significant influence in terms of their role as consumers and arbiters of good taste and respectability within their families and social groups.
Although it is difficult to clearly identify and define the term ‘middle class’ in the early nineteenth century, status – as the relational aspect of class - was clearly an important factor in determining an individual’s position within the social structure. Fintan Lane maintains that class power is ultimately linked to economic power, but also argues that ‘the issue of“status” demands consideration.’[3] It is clear that both economic power and status interlinked in the workings of class, with specific reference to the middle classes in Limerick in the early nineteenth century. ‘Respectability’, which was the ultimate aim of the early nineteenth-century middle classes, was achieved through a variety of ways. For example, one contemporary social commentator noted in the mid-century, ‘when I speak of a man being respectablein business, I mean that he can pay his way.’[4] Moreover, for many middle-class individuals, a professional occupation also provided a route to respectability.[5]
Without a certain level of wealth, the acquisition of the material goods necessary to maintain status amongst middle-class individuals and groups would have been impossible. Home furnishings were an expensive way in which to showcase
[3] Fintan Lane, ‘Introduction’, in Fintan Lane (ed), Politics, society and the middle class in modern Ireland (Hampshire, 2010), p. 3.
[4] William Johnston Esq. England as it is, political, social and industrial, in the middle of the nineteenth century: Volume II (London 1851), p.262.
[5] R. M. Martin Esq., Ireland before and after the union with Great Britain, (Dublin 1848), p.95.
wealth, noted by American woman Margaret Harvey on a visit to her wealthy upper middle-class relations in Cork in 1809. She described how ‘in the front parlour there is a sofa, eleven mahogany chairs, and two window seats large enough for three. Two tables, one Satin wood, cost five guineas alone!’[6] Therefore, consumption patterns were important and doors were shut to those who could not prove their respectability through the acquisition of particular goods.
One could not simply claim respectability, it had to be proven and more importantly, be accepted by ones peers. Respectability was the aim and end of every pursuit. With the baker in his shop, as with the butcher at his stall, it was the one
thing needful, the corner-stone of social existence[7]. Tests of respectability were found in many aspects of middle-class cultural and social life, particularly through the ownership and the appropriate use of the correct goods, both of which operated to create and maintain class distinctions. As Linda Young states,
possessing the goods was not sufficient to be acknowledged as
genteel; they had to be used with the correct discipline: the bath brought out
every day, the handkerchief employed discreetly, the cutlery held just so, the
furniture upholstered in grand but not flashy fabric. The knowledge to make the
right use of the necessary equipment could come at a mother’s knee, in an advice
book or by imitation of others, in that order of effectiveness. Knowledge-the
resource of cultural capitol-plus goods-underwritten by a certain level of
income-generated the genteel lifestyle.[8]
Passing these social tests was so vitally important to the upwardly aspiring middle-classes that on occasion, individuals and families within this group, nevertheless endeavoured to appear above their natural ‘station’ by living beyond their means.
[6] Margaret B. Harvey, A Journal Of A Voyage From Philadelphia to Cork, (1809), p.30.
[7] E. Little, Little’s Living Age, Volume III (Boston, 1844), p. 82.
[8] Linda Young, Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century: America, Australia and Britain, (Hampshire 2003), pp
4-5.
Such aspirants were regarded as social imposters, however, as ‘not living up to one’s income was bad; trying too hard was worse; the greatest sin of all was living above one’s income’[9] Gazing downwards socially, one member of the gentry noted the attempts of the newly rich to join the ranks of the gentry, something that was not generally welcomed by its original members: ‘It is among the proofs of degeneracy of the age, that our notions of gentility are much less superfine than were those of our ancestors. In any country town that makes any pretensions to gentility, there are to be found one or two of the old school, who look with ill concealed contempt of that mushroom race with which they are now doomed to
associate.’[10]
The early nineteenth-century middle-classes throughout Ireland and Great Britain enjoyed greater and freer access to a wide range of material goods due to an expansion in the world of goods throughout the eighteenth century. Maxine Berg states that ‘the luxury trades, traditionally associated with the metropolis, court culture, and expensive craft creation were redefined in a provincial manufacturing setting...which graced the houses and persons of a property conscious trades- people as well as the wealthier.’[11] In a local context, the 1841 census for Limerick illustrates that many individuals were employed in the production of clothing, demonstrating an obvious demand for fashionable attire amongst Limerick’s wealthier inhabitants. There were 461, tailors, 100 milliners and 830 dress makers in employment in the city.
Although Ireland did not in itself experience an industrial revolution, its close ties to England during the Georgian and subsequent Victorian eras allowed the upwardly aspiring Irish middle-classes to avail of imported products.
[9] Judith Flanders, The Victorian House, (London 2003), p. 132.
[10] Henry Colburn and Richard Bently, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, part 1, (London 1829), p.
406.
[11] Maxine Berg,‘Inventors in the world of goods’, in Kristine Bruland and Patrick O’ Brien (eds), From
family firms to corporate capitalism, (New York 1998), p.23.
Advertisements for material goods printed in the Limerick newspapers for luxury items, such as clothing, books and musical instruments such as, ‘improved piano fortes, for the nobility and gentry, at music warehouse 89 Patrick Street.’[12] illustrate that middle-class fashions and tastes descended from London. For example, an advertisement printed in the Limerick Chronicle in 1827 reveals that Mrs. Owen, a local ladies’ fashion retailer, imported her stock from London.[13] The impulsion for these new products is evidence, ‘that the international trade in domestic goods was driven by demand for certain kinds of items which both enabled and expressed a common pattern of values, behaviours and beliefs: middle-class gentility.’[14]
The concept of the ‘embodiment of class’ was frequently used to differentiate between the social classes through the correct attire and adornments in displaying wealth and respectability but also through etiquette and manners. ‘To this end an upright (though ‘natural’) posture, precise (though not excessive) attention to dress, control of emotions and desires (through a ‘proper’ show of grief), were all urged through training in etiquette, and minute attention was directed to details of behaviour since these were seen to distinguish the gentleman from the upstart, the lady from the prostitute’.[15] Manners were associated with morality and middle-class individuals were keen to act in accordance with respectable behavioural and social norms to demonstrate their social class position, such as conversation, which should bring into play all the amiable qualities of kindness, politeness, patience and forbearance...these qualities contribute greatly to the charm of conversation[16]. A poem printed by the Limerick Chroniclein 1831, titled ‘Domestic Asider, or Truth in Parenthesis’, is a good example
[12] Limerick Chronicle, August 4th 1827.
[13] Ibid, March 10th 1827.
[14] Linda Young, Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century, ( Hampshire 2003), p. 8.
[15] Simon Gunn, ‘Translating Bourdieu: Cultural capital and the English middle class in historical perspective’, The British Journal of Sociology, 56, 1 (2005), p. 61.
[16] Cassell’s Elementary Handbooks, The Handbook Of Etiquette, (London 1860), p. 32.
of the importance in maintaining polite and respectable behavioural codes, but also how the adherence to such codes could be seen as a point of ridicule, due to its false pretences.
I really take it very kind,
This visit, Mrs. Skinner!
I have not seen you for an age-
(the wretch has come to dinner!)
“Your daughters too, what loves of girls!
What heads for painters’ easels!
Come here and kiss the infant dears-
(And give it, perhaps, the measles!)
...
“Goodbye, goodbye; remember all; remember all!
Next time you’ll take your dinner-
(Now, David, mind, I’m not at home
In future to the Skinners!”)[17]
Along with such manners and etiquette, cleanliness and personal presentation standards were also perceived as a reflection of social class position and only certain sections of the population could afford luxuries such as perfume, hair and teeth products. Cleanliness of hair was promoted in etiquette books to prevent it from looking dirty and greasy and the addition of
soap to this practice was recommended.[18] Personal hygiene was both a display of wealth and also as a social class marker, due to the fact that fabrics during that period were difficult to wash and dry. Therefore the length of time between washes was an indicator of the amount of clothes and linens within the household. As noted in Margaret Harvey’s journal, while on her visit to Ireland, she received so much combing, brushing and rubbing that she became greatly fatigued.[19] Newspaper advertisements for products such as ‘English Yellow Soap’[20], confirm the class of consumer being targeted and indicates that newspapers in general spoke to the section of the middle-classes who could afford to buy both the product and the
[17] Limerick Chronicle, 21 Jan 1831.
[18] Anon, The Lady’s Book, Volume 1, (Philadelphia 1830), p. 88.
[19] Margaret B. Harvey, A Journal Of A Voyage From Philadelphia to Cork (1809) p. 40.
[20]Limerick Chronicle, 9 Feb 1831.
newspaper and to those whom were sufficiently educated to read them: the middle-classes. The 6d price for a newspaper substantiates this, when we compare it to feeding a family with a stone of potatoes, which cost 3d and was the staple diet of the less well off.
The home was an especially strategic site where aspiring middle-class individuals and families could conspicuously demonstrate their wealth and respectability. Firstly, the location or address of one’s house was generally a clear marker of social class position. In early nineteenth-century Limerick, the lower and working classes tended to live in the older areas of the city, English and Irish Towns, which had become increasingly dilapidated since the growth and development of Newtown
Pery. Early nineteenth-century trade directories for Limerick illustrate that the city’s wealthier inhabitants, which included the middle classes usually lived and worked in Newtown Pery, also known as St. Michael’s Parish. Even within St. Michael’s Parish, there were certain streets that held greater status and prestige than others. Pigott’s trade directory for Limerick, printed in 1824, illustrates how most of the local gentry, wealthy merchants and professionals lived in the streets to the southern end of the parish, with the Crescent and Pery Square area holding special status.[21] The ownership of country or summer houses, was also an important reflection of wealth and status and were frequently kept in great style, as noted in Margaret Harvey’s visit to a relative’s house just outside Cork, with, ‘the best laid outside grounds...a large hall and dining parlour; a large drawing room; a study, and two pantries on the first floor.’[22]
[21] Pigott, J., City of Dublin and Hibernian provincial directory (Dublin, 1824), pp 280-293. Manchester, J. Pigott &
Co.
[22] Margaret B. Harvey, A Journal Of A Voyage From Philadelphia to Cork (1809), p. 52.
In addition, the furniture and fittings within the middle class home was also a powerful marker of taste, respectability and refinement. Household furniture in particular illustrates how the middle-classes followed fashion trends closely and the decor of specific rooms reflected the formality of their social clique. The drawing room in particular, was an area where the upwardly aspiring chose to showcase their homes, as that was the room in which they entertained; it was used as an opportunity to impress. Since it was generally set to the front of the house, where passersby could glimpse its contents, the drawing room was frequently the first room to be decorated. ‘For those with limited means, the only way to achieve the necessary finish was to skimp on the parts of their houses...the bedrooms and kitchen in particular...where no guests ever went.’[23] Moreover, ‘there were as many ways of decorating as there were people to fill them and the ideal decoration changed over time. A few things, however, remained desirable throughout the period: a high ceiling, a long room, a bay window’[24]. The importance placed on home furnishings by the middle-classes changed little for the remainder of the century, reflected in the local Limerick newspapers, which targeted the upwardly aspiring middle classes. Note the language used in this newspaper advertisement, ‘SplendidAuction...the nobility and gentry of the county and city of Limerick are respectfully informed that a large and splendid assortment of Brussels, Venetian, Kidder Minster...will be sold by auction at the Bazaar, 14 Georges Street.’[25] The 1841 census for Limerick illustrates those 352 carpenters and 127 cabinetmakers in employment, highlighting the demand for furniture amongst the city’s wealthier inhabitants.
Certain other possessions of significance which were attached to the homes of the well off, such as carriages, were also an index of their wealth and were added reflections of success, noted in the Limerick Chronicle, are advertisements of same,
[23] The Victorian House, p. 132.
[24] Ibid, p.138.
[25] Limerick Chronicle, Feb 25 1826.
a year apart, signifying the continued improvements to, demand and prestige, attached to these possessions, An advertisement in 1830 announced the sale of a ‘fashionable CHARIOT...built by one of the first makers in London.’[26] A year later, a further advertisement read that a ‘Fashionable, Spacious Outside Family Jaunting Car...seating centre for the accommodation of children, surmounted by a newly invented Umbrella.’[27] The ownership of such material possessions bestowed status on the entire household, and was a reflection of the success of the male breadwinner, as her material possessions were regarded as having been financed by him.
The role of women within middle-class material culture during the early nineteenth century was a highly significant one. Given that it appeared that women of the period wielded little power or influence in the machinations of class, due to their position as a reflection of their husbands success, it could easily be assumed that her position was merely relative. Flanders maintains that ‘it was entirely accepted by the vast majority of the population that the central event in any woman’s life was marriage. Women who remained unmarried had failed to fulfil their destiny, both biologically and psychologically’[28]. Marriage was so revered; it was not uncommon to read poetry dedicated to the issue in newspapers of the time.
Lament Of The Single Ladies
We’re ready-we’re ready-it really is hard
That from Hymen’s sweet bonds we no long are debarr’d;
The men are so cautious-the hard-hearted creatures-
They care not for all our blond smiles and fair features
There are plenty of redcoats, and we like them the best
But they’re just like the others, when put to the test.
They tell us we form the delight of their lives,
Yet they very well manage to live without wives.
Of dinners and balls our papas give them plenty-
And of hints, it is true, our mamas give out twenty...[29]
[26] Ibid 26 Jan 1830.
[27] Ibid 12 Feb 1831.
[28] Flanders, The Victorian House, p. 177.
[29] Limerick Chronicle, Nov 17 1830.
This pressure and expectation for middle-class women to become wives and mothers perhaps obscures their role in maintaining the social class position of their household and of the family’s position within middle-class circles. Middle-class women had considerable influence on various aspects of the social standing of the household, such as the decoration and maintenance of their home, the care and support of their husbands and their children’s religious instruction and education.
Such cultural practices and behavioural patterns were all fundamental to middle-class status and therefore should not be overlooked. As Simon Gunn highlights,
it was not only that women in the middle class were charged with
responsibility for the upbringing and education of children to school age and
beyond, and thus had a primary role in the formation of the next generation; nor
that they were the focal point of accomplishments such as musical performance
which signalled the socio-cultural status of the house-hold. It was also that
such women had a critical part in transmitting cultural competence by embodying
it in their own person, their dress, deportment and behaviour.’[30]
The power of middle class women also lay in the fact that they were arbiters of respectability and good taste, both within the home and within their social cliques. However, their influence in the early nineteenth century meant very little unless it was perpetuated locally. Evangelicalism played a vital role in the middle-class belief of women’s role during the first half of the nineteenth century. ‘Between 1780 and 1820, in the evangelical struggle over anti-slavery and over the reform of manners
[30] Simon Gunn,‘Translating Bourdieu: Cultural capital and the English middle class in historical perspective’, The British Journal of Sociology, 56, 1 (2005), p.55.
and morals, a new view of the nation... and of family life was forged’[31]. This evangelical view separated the spheres of men and women. The female sphere was a private one, viewed as being role models for their children and their husbands and ‘the household was seen as the basis for a proper religious life-morality began at home’[32]. Simultaneously the sphere of men was a more public one, in which they were viewed as being successful if their wives could stay at home to provide a loving and guiding environment for the family. The education of women was perceived as noteworthy but also as being distinct from that of male education. Their education was focused on making them better wives and mothers, ‘as a social being, she needs to be educated with special reference to that sexual distinction that nature has established...such are the outlines of what we conceive to be a true system of education for women
1. It should be commensurate with the wants of human nature, both in the higher and in the lower elements of that nature.
2. It should provide for maintaining inviolate her sexual character, which cannot be overlooked without endangering her morality, and consequently the morality of the social system.
3. It should thoroughly qualify her for the discharge of
the appropriate duties of her sphere in life.[33]
Her standing in the community was of primary importance to her propriety and this position was a result of the kind of family she was born into and also who she married, for without the financial support of first her father and subsequently her husband, she would have been forced to work, therefore unable to gain or claim any notions of worthiness within middle-class circles. An example of this can be seen in a review of a letter (see attached) sent from a relative of the upper middle-
[31]Leonore Davidoff, and Catherine Hall, Family fortunes: Men and women of the English middle class, 1780-1850(London, 1987) , p.75.
[32] Ibid, p. 84.
[33]Wiliam Hosmer, , The Young Lady’s Book; or, Principles of Female Education, (New York 1854),p. 10.
class, Limerick Matterson family on the 21st of May 1873, a
‘brief glance into the life of a Limerick woman in the
1870s. Eleanor Mossop McGhie...married James McGhie who was a miller and whose
family ran the Blackwater mills, whose offices were based at 56 William
Street... Being married to a miller she was considered a station below her
Matterson and Russell relatives and although she would have been privy to many
of the social events in Limerick she would not have received an
invitation.’[34]
A notice in the Limerick Chronicle in 1827 is an example of how much women depended on their husbands income for support and what happened when this support was taken away. I reveals that men were regarded as women’s primary financial support. ‘That I Patrick Rea, of Kileen in the parish of Ballylander,...in the County of Limerick, and my wife Mary Rea, alias Fleming, have voluntarily separated from each other... I hereby give Notice to the public at large, not to Credit my said Wife, in either money or value’[35]
Nevertheless, although it was their husbands or fathers that made the family money, essentially, it was the women who chose what to spend it on, therefore it was generally the women who were targeted as consumers by the newspapers. Clothing was an important factor of material culture and what one wore and how one wore it reflected one’s socio economic position. Therefore fashion, which was largely influenced by London, was a must for middle-class women and they learned of the latest trends through advertisements. The middle class was a class marked by their adherence to fashion, and the faculty of taste was used to differentiate between the classes and between individuals and groups within the middle class itself. Women of means often changed clothes three or four times daily, as there were different dresses for different times of day as noted in advertising, ‘Fashions for February’[36], shows both a walking dress and a dinner dress and also, ‘Fashions for May’[37]which shows a dinner dress and an evening dress and in April of the same year,‘Fashionable Summer Goods, just received
[34] www.limerickslife.com/ - 7-11-10.
[35] Limerick Chronicle, August 14th 1827.
[36] Ibid February 16th 1831.
[37] Ibid May 10th 1831.
direct from London’[38], exhibits the important role that fashion played in the role of middle-class culture.
A significant way in which the middle classes displayed these fashions and subsequently their wealth and position was the promenade, ‘the walks on the north circular road, on which several of the gentry and traders of Limerick have their country seats.’[39] The promenade was no casual stroll; its purpose was to view and to be viewed, by other members of your class, or by those aspiring to become part of your set. One nineteenth-century commentator outlined the significance of ‘The Salute’, which he contended, ‘must be respectful, cordial, civil, affectionate, or familiar, according to the person to whom it is addressed...the ladies salute indifferent acquaintances with an inclination of the head and friends with a movement of the hand.’[40] An acknowledgement of the salute was an assumption of acceptance within the circle one aspired to. A ‘cut’, or an ignored salute, was a direct insult and a refusal of acceptance.
Although middle-class status may have fundamentally appeared to have been a social position that individuals were born into, access to material possessions, through mass production and easier availability, allowed upwardly aspiring people to endeavour to better themselves in the eyes of society. If possessions make us who we are then simple affordability, along with appropriate behaviour, learned through education, academic or emulation, is the manner in which the upwardly aspiring became middle-class but this paper has shown that it was far from a straight forward process. It was a complicated
[38]Limerick Chronicle, April 183
[38] Limerick Evening Post, January 25th 1815
[39] Maurice Lenihan, Esq., Limerick, its history and Antiquities, Ecclesiastical, Civil and Military, (Dublin 1866), p.752.
[40] W. H. Bidwell, editor and proprietor, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, (New York May to
August 1859), p. 277.
and uneasy existence, as French found in his study of the ‘middling sorts’ of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to him, social position was
not merely a matter of judging how they behaved, dressed or
spoke but of locating them within a known, defined circle of kin, friends,
‘credit-worthy’ business men, intellectual authorities, or political opinions,
religious beliefs, or fashionable tastes...the ‘town gentry’ were undoubtedly a
permeable grouping, in which participation centred on a shared domestic material
culture that was easier to acquire than a landed estate. However, admittance to
their ranks also required a degree of evaluation, assimilation, and
approval...this had to be cultivated and not taken for granted’[41]
The role of material culture then, must neither be said to be the conception of the middle-classes, nor must it be omitted from the history of its emergence, due to its remarkably significant position as part of its structure.
[41] H.R. French, The Middle Sort of People in Provincial England 1600-1750, (Oxford 2007), p. 243.
Bibliography
Primary sources:
Anon, The Lady’s Book, Volume 1, (Philadelphia 1830). Cassell’s Elementary Handbooks, The Handbook Of Etiquette, (London 1860).
Colburn, Henry and Richard Bently, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, part 1, (London 1829).
Harvey, Margaret B. A Journal Of A Voyage From Philadelphia to Cork, (1809).
Johnston, William Esq. England as it is, political, social and industrial, in the middle of the nineteenth century: Volume I(London 1851).
Little, E., Little’s Living Age, Volume III, (Boston, 1844).
Martin, R. M. Esq., Ireland before and after the union with Great Britain, (Dublin 1848).
William, Hosmer, The Young Lady’s Book; or, Principles of Female Education, (New York 1854).
Secondary sources
Berg, Maxine ‘Inventors in the world of goods’, in Kristine Bruland and Patrick O’Brien (eds), From family firms to corporate capitalism, (New York 1998).
Davidoff, Leonore and Catherine Hall, Family fortunes: Men and women of the English middle class, 1780-1850 (London, 1987).
Flanders, Judith The Victorian House, (London 2003).
French, H.R., The Middle Sort of People in Provincial England 1600-1750 (Oxford 2007).
Gunn, Simon, The public culture of the Victorian middle class: Ritual and authority in the English industrial city 1840-1914, (Manchester 2000).
Lane, Fintan, ‘Introduction’, in Fintan Lane (ed), Politics, society and the middle class in modern Ireland (Hampshire, 2010).
Linda Young, Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century: America, Australia and Britain,
(Hampshire 2003).
Directories
Pigott, J., City of Dublin and Hibernian provincial directory, (Dublin, 1824)
Manchester, J. Pigott & Co.
Journals
Simon Gunn, ‘Translating Bourdieu: Cultural capital and the English middle class in historical perspective’, The British Journal of Sociology, 56, 1 (2005), p.61.
Newspapers
Limerick Chronicle
Limerick Evening Post
Websites
www.limerickslife.com/ -7-11-10
Primary sources:
Anon, The Lady’s Book, Volume 1, (Philadelphia 1830). Cassell’s Elementary Handbooks, The Handbook Of Etiquette, (London 1860).
Colburn, Henry and Richard Bently, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, part 1, (London 1829).
Harvey, Margaret B. A Journal Of A Voyage From Philadelphia to Cork, (1809).
Johnston, William Esq. England as it is, political, social and industrial, in the middle of the nineteenth century: Volume I(London 1851).
Little, E., Little’s Living Age, Volume III, (Boston, 1844).
Martin, R. M. Esq., Ireland before and after the union with Great Britain, (Dublin 1848).
William, Hosmer, The Young Lady’s Book; or, Principles of Female Education, (New York 1854).
Secondary sources
Berg, Maxine ‘Inventors in the world of goods’, in Kristine Bruland and Patrick O’Brien (eds), From family firms to corporate capitalism, (New York 1998).
Davidoff, Leonore and Catherine Hall, Family fortunes: Men and women of the English middle class, 1780-1850 (London, 1987).
Flanders, Judith The Victorian House, (London 2003).
French, H.R., The Middle Sort of People in Provincial England 1600-1750 (Oxford 2007).
Gunn, Simon, The public culture of the Victorian middle class: Ritual and authority in the English industrial city 1840-1914, (Manchester 2000).
Lane, Fintan, ‘Introduction’, in Fintan Lane (ed), Politics, society and the middle class in modern Ireland (Hampshire, 2010).
Linda Young, Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century: America, Australia and Britain,
(Hampshire 2003).
Directories
Pigott, J., City of Dublin and Hibernian provincial directory, (Dublin, 1824)
Manchester, J. Pigott & Co.
Journals
Simon Gunn, ‘Translating Bourdieu: Cultural capital and the English middle class in historical perspective’, The British Journal of Sociology, 56, 1 (2005), p.61.
Newspapers
Limerick Chronicle
Limerick Evening Post
Websites
www.limerickslife.com/ -7-11-10