Heiresses

The sugar plantations of the Caribbean generated vast wealth not only for men, but women also

This money enabled heiresses to marry into the top tiers of the aristocracy, construct lavish country homes, commission the era’s greatest artists and influence the nation’s politics. Their banquets, dresses and dowries all funded by the exploitation of enslaved men, women and children.

Following the lives of nine heiresses, Miranda Kaufmann peers beneath the demure, empire-waisted image of the Georgian heiress to reveal a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation.

From Jane Leigh Perrot, Jane Austen’s light-fingered aunt, to Elizabeth Vassall Fox, who faked her daughter’s death to maintain custody, Heiresses traces the often scandalous lives of the women who made Britain rich.