Definition
An act of bankruptcy under English law, committed when a trader withdraws from his place of business and confines himself to his private residence for the purpose of evading creditors. The act is established by evidence that the debtor refused to see, or denied himself to, a creditor who called at the debtor's home seeking payment. Keeping house was one of a recognized catalogue of acts of bankruptcy that could trigger creditor petitions under the English bankruptcy statutes.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Present participle of "keep house" — to manage or maintain a household; to perform domestic duties.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To maintain a separate domicile or establishment; to reside and manage one's own home rather than living as a lodger or dependent in another's household.
The legal meaning is sharply distinct from both common usages. In ordinary English, "keeping house" carries a domestic, even mundane, connotation — staying home, managing household affairs. In bankruptcy law, the phrase describes a deliberate evasive act by a debtor: staying home not as a matter of domestic routine but as a stratagem to avoid creditors. The legal significance is not domesticity but concealment.
---
Common Confusion
Keeping house should not be confused with mere absence from a place of business. The act requires the debtor to be a trader and the withdrawal to be purposeful — directed at evading the importunity of creditors. A trader who is ill, traveling on business, or otherwise absent without evasive intent does not commit this act of bankruptcy. The distinguishing element is the creditor who presents himself and is denied access or turned away.
---
Core Elements
Because the act of bankruptcy had legal consequences requiring precise proof, the sources identify specific elements:
1. Trader status. The act was confined to traders; non-traders could not commit this particular act of bankruptcy under English law.
2. Withdrawal or seclusion. The debtor must absent himself from his place of business or confine himself to his house — or to a concealed part of it — during ordinary business hours.
3. Evasive purpose. The withdrawal must be for the purpose of evading the importunity of creditors, not for innocent reasons.
4. Creditor demand and denial. The usual and most probative evidence is that a creditor called on the debtor at his house for payment and was refused access or denied an audience.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs almost entirely to English bankruptcy law history. Researchers encountering "keeping house" in primary sources — particularly English statutes, bankruptcy court records, treatises, or American cases citing English authority before the development of independent American bankruptcy law — should understand it as a term of art from a specific statutory regime, not a general description of residential conduct.
The phrase appears in English bankruptcy literature through the nineteenth century. American bankruptcy law developed its own statutory framework, and "keeping house" as a technical term of art did not migrate as a formal category into American federal bankruptcy practice. American sources that use the phrase after the mid-nineteenth century may be citing English precedent for comparative or historical purposes, not applying a domestic rule.
Researchers working in colonial-era or early American commercial law materials may encounter the phrase used analogously, since early American commercial practice borrowed heavily from English bankruptcy and insolvency doctrine before federal bankruptcy statutes were established. Context will determine whether a given source is applying English doctrine or adapting it.
The evidentiary structure of keeping house — the creditor's call, the denial, the inference of evasion — illustrates how English bankruptcy law converted debtor conduct into triggering events for collective creditor proceedings. This context is relevant to research on the historical development of insolvency law generally.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Bouvier's are in close agreement on the substance: keeping house is an act of bankruptcy, confined to traders, consisting of withdrawal from business and evasion of creditors, evidenced by refusal to see a creditor who calls for payment. All three sources treat the term as an English law doctrine.
Rapalje & Lawrence adds useful detail on the specific forms of conduct that qualify: denying oneself to a creditor, withdrawing into a secret part of the house, refraining from attending one's place of business, or confining oneself to the house during the day for evasive purposes. This suggests the act could be committed in several ways, not solely by a face-to-face denial at the door.
Black's and Bouvier's both cite Robson's work on bankruptcy for the underlying doctrine. Bouvier's additionally cites 6 Bing. 363, a reference to the English common law reports (Bingham's Reports), anchoring the doctrine in case law.
No significant divergence exists among the three sources on the core meaning. The historical dictionaries do not address American application or the term's trajectory after English bankruptcy law was reformed in the latter nineteenth century — a gap researchers should note when tracing the concept beyond the sources.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Keeping house as a formal act of bankruptcy is a doctrine of English law. It does not appear as a statutory category in American federal bankruptcy law. American cases referencing the term are generally doing so in the context of English authority or pre-federal insolvency practice. Researchers should not assume the term carried operative legal force in American jurisdictions without verifying the specific statutory and doctrinal context.
---