Abstract
This article explores the testamentary practice and family strategies of the big bourgeoisie of mid-eighteenth-century London. It does so in the context of two debates: the accessibility of landed status to new wealth and the rise of affective individualism. The author argues that the rich businessmen of the metropolis were not always interested in investing their fortunes in landed estates, but those who were and had the wealth and demographic fortune to do so were not unsuccessful. This article also suggests that businessmen were less interested in male primogeniture and patrilineal descent than the landed aristocracy and more willing to accommodate the interests of wives and daughters in the quest for social ambition and financial security.
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