A Treatise of Feme Coverts: Or, The Lady's Law

Download or read book A Treatise of Feme Coverts: Or, The Lady's Law written by and published by . This book was released on 1732 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First edition of The Lady's Law, which examines the doctrines of English Common Law relating to a "feme convert" or a woman whose legal status was covered by a male head of her household, either a father or husband. A "feme convert" was therefore a woman not yet married or already married, but not widowed. (The legal status of a widow was a different matter entirely.) Written from a perspective sympathetic to women, it deals with precedents of conveyances not covered in the Law of Baron and Femme, and as such can be seen as a companion volume. The work concludes with an account of Robert Hyde's argument in the case of Manby v. Scott in the Exchequer Chamber in 1663 in which he argued that a husband who is separated from his wife is not liable to a vendor for goods the wife purchased from the vendor. Commenting on the case in his diary, Samuel Pepys refereed to Hyde's judgment as "most amusing."