Where would a woman live after her husband dies in regency England?

Question

...Assuming that it were set up like a Mrs. Bennett situation in pride and prejudice...when her husband dies and the estate is clearly entailed away from her and her daughters where would she and any of her unmarried daughters live?

What would be appropriate for the time?

Answer 1

If they had other relatives, they often ended up being the "poor relation" and were allowed to live with a richer one, but they had to do what they were told and were often reduced to the status of a companion or unpaid servant.  The girls would be married off as soon as they came of age or they would be trained as nannies and governesses.  

In Victorian England Beatrix Potter was kept at home by her own parents and expected to run the house for her mother until she used her writing to break free.  

In Harry Potter, Harry was taken in by relatives, but treated like a servant they couldn't get rid of until he started going to Hogwarts.  Typical British attitude that goes back centuries.  You don't kick your relatives out on the street, but you do make them work for that roof over their heads and you do make sure they know they are there because you are too kind to kick them out.

Answer 2

It would be up to her children to find a place for her.  

There weren't any laws, but the custom of the time would be for one of her children to take her in or provide for her somewhere else.

Answer 3

Well, in the case of Mrs Bennett, since two of her daughters have married very well-off men, she would probably go and live with one of them, as would any unmarried daughters.  Or they might live with her brother, Mr Gardiner.

However, according to her niece's memoir, Jane Austen said that all the Bennet sisters got married, Kitty married a clergyman, and Mary married a clerk, I think probably an employee of her uncle Gardiner, so they would both be provided for.  Mrs Bennett might have a little money of her own, perhaps something inherited from her own parents.  Elderly widows were not normally expected to live alone if they had children to stay with, so she might settle with one daughter, or pay them a round of visits in turn.

I suspect, though, that she would probably end up living with the Bingleys, who, knowing their generous natures, would be the first ones to offer her a home when Mr Bennett died.