This text has been selected for inclusion in the EEBO-TCP: Navigations collection, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
TOuching the Women of England there are divers things considerable in the En∣glish Laws and Customs, Wo∣men in England with all their Moveable Goods, so soon as they are married, are wholly in potestate viri, at the will and disposition of the Husband.
If any Goods or Chattels be given to Feme Covert to a Married Woman, they all im∣mediately become her Hus∣bands. She cannot let, set, sell, give away, or alienate a∣ny thing, without her Hus∣bands consent.
Her very Necessary Apparel by the Law is not hers in pro∣perty. If she hath any Tenure at all, it is in Capite, that is, she holds it of and by her Hus∣band, who is Caput mulieris; and therefore the Law saith Ux∣or fulget radiis mariti.
All the Chattels personal the Wife had at the Marriage, is so much her Husbands, that after his death they shall not re∣turn to the Wife, but go to the Executor or Administrator of the Husband, as his other
Goods and Chattels, except only her Parapherna, which are her Necessary Apparel, which with the consent of her Hus∣band she may devise by Will; not otherwise by our Law; be∣cause the property and possessi∣on even of the Parapherna are in him.
The Wife can make no Con∣tract without her Husbands consent, and in Law matters sine viro respondere non potest.
The Law of England suppo∣seth a Wife to be in so much Subjection and Obedience to her Husband, as to have no will at all of her own: Where∣fore if a Man and his Wife com∣mit a felony together, the Wife by the Law can be nei∣ther Principal nor Accessory, the Law supposing that in re∣gard
of the subjection and obe∣dience she owes to her Hus∣band, she was necessitated thereunto.
The Law of England suppo∣ses in the Husband a power o∣ver his Wife, as over his Child or Servant, to correct her when she offends; and there∣fore he must answer for his Wives faults, if she wrong a∣nother by her Tongue or by Trespass, he must make satis∣faction.
So the Law makes it as high a Crime, and allots the same pu∣nishment to a Woman that shall kill her Husband, as to a Woman that shall kill her Fa∣ther or Master, and that is Petty Treason, and to be burnt alive.
So that a Wife in England is de jure but the best of Servants, having nothing her own in a more proper sense than a Child hath, whom his Father suffers to call many things his own, yet can dispose of nothing.
The Woman upon Marriage loseth not onely the power o∣ver her person and her will, and the property of her Goods, but her very Name; for ever after she useth her Husbands Sur∣name, and her own is wholly laid aside; which is not obser∣ved in France and other Coun∣tries, where the Wife sub∣scribes her self by her Paternal Name; as if Susanna the Daughter of R. Clifford be married to E. Chamberlayn, she writes her self Susanna Clifford Chamberlayn.
Notwithstanding all which, their condition de facto is the best in the World; for such is the good nature of Englishmen towards their Wives, such is their tenderness and respect, giving them the uppermost place at Table and elsewhere, the right hand every where, and putting them upon no drudge∣ry and hardship; that if there were a Bridge over into Eng∣land as aforesaid, it is thought all the Women in Europe would run thither.
Besides in some things the Laws of England are above o∣ther Nations so favourable to that Sex, as if the Women had voted at the making of them.
If a Wife bring forth a Child during her Husbands ab∣sence,
though it be for some years within England, and not beyond the Seas, that Husband must father that Child.
If a Wife bring forth a Child begotten by any other before Marriage, yet the present Hus∣band must own the Child, and that Child shall be his Heir at Law.
The Wife after her Hus∣bands death may challenge the third part of his yearly Rents of Lands during her life, and within the City of London a third part of all her Husbands moveables for ever.
As the Wife doth partici∣pate of her Husband Name, so likewise of his Condition. If he be a Duke, she is a Dutch∣ess; if he be a night, she is a Lady; if he be an Alien made
a Denison, she is ipso facto so too. If a Freeman marry a Bondwoman, she is also free during the Coverture; where∣fore it is said as before, Uocor fulget radiis Mariti.
All Women in England are comprised under Noble or Ig∣noble.
Noble Women are so three manner of wayes, viz. by Cre∣ation, by Descent, and by Mar∣riage.
The King the Fountain of Honour, may, and oft hath crea∣ted Women to be Baronesses, Countesses, Dutchesses, &c.
By Descent such Women are Noble, to whom Lands holden by such Dignity do descend a•• Heir; for Dignities and Titles of Honour for want of Males descend to Females; but to
one of them onely, because they are things in their own na∣ture entire, and not to be di∣vided amongst many (as the Lands and Tenements are which descend to all the Daughters equally) besides by dividing Dignities, the Repu∣tation of Honour would be lost, and the Strength of the Realm impaired; for the Ho∣nour and Chevalry of the Realm doth chiefly consist in the No∣bility thereof.
By Marriage all Women are Noble, who take to their Hus∣bands any Baron or Peer of the Realm; but if afterwards they 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to Men not Noble, they 〈◊〉〈◊〉 their former Dignity, and follow the condition of their la∣•••• Husband; for eodem modo distolvitur earum Nobilitas, quo
constituitur. But Women No∣ble by Creation, or Descent, or Birthright, remain Noble, though they marry Husbands under their Degree; for such Nobility is accounted Character indelebilis. Here note, that by the Courtesie of England a Woman Noble only by Mar∣riage alwayes retaineth her Nobility; but if the Kings Daughter marry a Duke or an Earl, illa semper dicitur Rega∣lis, as well by Law as Cour∣tesie.
Noble women in the Eye of the Law are as Peers of the Realm, and are to be tried by their Peers, and to enjoy most other Priviledges, Honour, and Respect as their Husbands▪ Only they cannot by the opini∣on of some great Lawyers
maintain an Action upon the Statute De Scandalo Magnatum, the Makers of that Statute meaning only to provide in that Case for the Great Men, and not for the Women, as the words of that Statute seem to import. Likewise if any of the Kings Servants within his Check Roll should conspice the death of any Noblewoman, this were not Felony, as it is, if like Conspiracy be against a Noble∣man.
None of the Wives Digni∣ties can come by Marriage to their Husbands, although all their Goods and Chattels do; onely the Wives Lands are to descend to her next Heir: yet is the Courtesie of England such, that as the Wife for her Dower hath the third part of
her Husbands Lands during her life; so the Husband (for the Dignity of his Sex, and for playing the Man in begetting his Wife with Child, which must appear by being born a∣live) shall have all his Wives Lands (for his Dower, if it may be so called) during his life.
By the Constitutions of Eng∣land married persons are so fast joyned, that they may not be wholly separated by any agree∣ment between themselves, but only by Sentence of the Judge, and such separation is either a Vinculo Matrimonii, and that is ob praecontractum, vel ob contractum per metum effectum, vel ob frigiditatem, vel ob affi∣nitatem sive Censanguinitatem, vel ob Saevitiam; or else such
separation is a Mensa & Thoro, and that is ob Adulterium.
The Wife in England is ac∣counted so much one with her Husband, that she caunot be produced as a witness for or a∣gainst her Husband.