Money in Sense and Sensibility: The Dashwoods
…four thousand a-year, in addition to his present income, besides the remaining half of his own mother’s fortune…” Chapter 2
The reader learns the income of Norland Park – four thousand pounds a year – through the thoughts of John Dashwood. His fathers death, which pushes the narrative into action, means he’ll also access the second half his mothers dowry, “half of which (had) devolved on him on his coming of age,” the other half had been supplementing the income of his father.
In the final chapter (50) we discover Fanny brought ten thousand pounds into her marriage (“ten thousand pounds .. had been given with Fanny”) which would have produced five hundred pounds yearly.
Norland Park = 4,000
Fanny’s dowry = 10,000 or 500
John Dashwood’s (known) annual income = 4,500
The amount of John Dashwood’s mother’s dowry is never detailed. John and Fanny wouldn’t marry on less than £1,000 a year so his mothers money must have given them at least 500, matching the 500 from Fanny. If we assume that minimum, the full dowry was at least twenty thousand.
Norland Park = 4,000
Fanny’s dowry = 10,000 or 500
John’s mothers dowry (minimum) = 20,000 or 1,000
John Dashwood’s (minimum) annual income = 5,500
…ten thousand pounds, including the late legacies, was all that remained for his widow and daughters” Chapter 2
Mrs Henry Dashwood and her daughters (Elinor, Marianne and Margaret) have an annual income of £500 per annum, the amount Fanny Dashwood adds to her husbands income. This is less than one tenth of the assumed income of the John Dashwoods, amongst four people, with the additional burden of losing their home that provided accommodation and food.
Mr Henry Dashwood had “only seven thousand pounds,” which became his wife’s on his death, plus the girls were gifted “a thousand pounds a-piece” on the death of their great uncle.
Henry Dashwood’s fortune = 7,000 or 350
The Dashwood girls (3) money = 3,000 or 150
Mrs Henry Dashwood’s annual income = 500
John original plan was to “increase the fortunes of his sisters by the present of a thousand pounds a-piece” (Chapter 1). Had this come from the Norland estate that makes £4,000 a year, at 75% of their income it sounds extreme. But the 4,000 is an annual amount; the 3,000 is a one off payment which would give the Dashwood females an additional 150 per year.
Henry Dashwood’s fortune = 7,000 or 350
The Dashwood girls (3) money = 3,000 or 150
Gift for the Dashwood girls (3) from their brother = 3,000 or 150
Mrs Henry Dashwood’s (proposed) annual income = 650
That extra 150 is 2.7% of the minimum income of John Dashwood’s family but would make up 23% of the income of Mrs Henry Dashwood and her children. It would not have been a significant “loss” for the John Dashwood’s but it would have been a considerable gain for the female branch of his family.
But John Dashwood’s “assistance extended no farther than their maintenance for six months at Norland” (chapter 5), he makes no present to his step mother or sisters.
John Dashwood’s (minimum) annual income = 5,500
Mrs Henry Dashwood’s annual income = 500