I picked this book up more for general background research on women's lives and expectations, but since I'm doing a thematic run of publications on singlewomen and on social and economic contexts in which women had the possibility of living lives independent of marriage and patriarchal control, it fits in well enough to include.
Reading through the details of what daughters were inheriting, how those inheritances reflected their life expectations, and how they fit into the social and economic structure of the time, we can easily construct a number of scenarios in which a woman could establish and enjoy a stable, comfortable life, with family bonds and positive community relationships, without ever marrying a man and--here's the key element--without that state being considered unusual, scandalous, or suspicious. And given the structure of households, she would almost certainly share her life with other women: with unmarried sisters or more distant relatives, with female servants, with apprentices (or apprenticed to someone), or even with "very dear friends" who preferred not to live on their own.
You don't need to require your lesbian protagonist to reject her family. To leave her community. To be an outcast or considered "peculiar" if she lives on her own without marrying. Have her parents leave her a few income-producing tenements. Perhaps a house with a "rent" shop attached to it. Her brother and married sister expect that the property will make a good dowry some day, but if she isn't that "lucky" then at least she won't need their charity. Maybe she feels underfoot in her sibling's house and chooses to live on her own. She's learned a trade and maybe even has an apprentice or two of her own. She'll hire a few servants and be very combortable in that house. And the young widow who's set up shop in the "rent" is industrious and friendly and...lonely. There's your premise. Go write!
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