Esther Sleepe, Fan-Maker, and Her Family

Esther Sleepe Burney, the wife of Charles and mother of Frances, features almost not at all in the literature on the Burney family. This paper introduces her, her sisters and her mother, as part of a London fan-making enterprise that was highly lucrative and female-dominated, although by no means exclusively female. The family trade is set in the context of women’s involvement in the luxury trades of eighteenth-century London, as both owners and employees.