HUSBAND AND WIFE. 



tropic the western winds pour down with 

 violence upon those parts, the opposition 

 of these contrary winds cannot fail to 

 produce a hurricane. Hurricanes shift 

 not through all the points of the compass, 

 but beg-in always with a north wind, veer 

 to the east, and then cease ; and their 

 shifting between these two points is so 

 fiudden and violent, that it is impossible 

 for any ship to veer with it ; whence it 

 happens that the sails are carried away, 

 yards and all, and sometimes the masts 

 themselves wreathed round like an osier. 



HUSBAND and WIFE, usually termed 

 baron and feme, are one person in law ; 

 that is, the very being or legal existence 

 of the woman is suspended during the 

 marriage ; or, at least, is incorporated 

 and consolidated into that of the husband, 

 under whose wing, protection, and cover, 

 she performs every thing; sheistherefore, 

 called, in our law (French,) a feme co- 

 vert, that is, under the protection and in- 

 fluence of her husband, her baron, or 

 lord ; and her condition during her mar- 

 riage is called her coverture. A man 

 cannot grant lands to hit wife during the 

 coverture, nor any estate or interest to 

 her, nor enter into covenant with her ; 

 but he may, by his deed, covenant with 

 others for her use, as for her jointure, 

 or the like ; and he may give to her, 

 by devise or will, because the devise or 

 will does not take effect till after his 

 death. 



All deeds executed by the wife, and 

 acts done by her during her coverture, 

 are void ; except a fine, or the like mat- 

 ter of record, in which case she must be 

 solely and secretly examined, that it may 

 be known whether or not her act be vo- 

 luntary. A wife is so much favoured, in 

 respect of that power and authority 

 which her husband has over her, that she 

 shall not suffer any punishment for com- 

 mitting a bare theft, in company with, or 

 by coercion of, her husband; but if she 

 commit a theft of her own voluntary act, 

 .or by the bare command of her husband, 

 or be guilty of treason, murder, or rob- 

 bery, in company with or by coercion of 

 her husband, she is punishable as much 

 as if she were sole ; because of the odi- 

 ousness and dangerous consequence of 

 these crimes. By marriage, the husband 

 hath power over his wife's person ; and 

 the courts of law still permit a husband 

 to restrain a wife of her liberty, in case 

 of any gross misbehaviour: but if he 

 threaten to kill her, &c. she may make 

 him find surety of the peace, by suing a 

 writ of supplicavit out of Chancery, or by 



preferring articles of the peace against 

 him in the court of the King's Bench, or 

 she may apply to the spiritual court for a 

 divorce on account of cruelty. The 

 husband, by marriage, obtains a free- 

 hold in right of his wife, if he takes a 

 woman to wife that is seized of a free- 

 hold ; and he may make a lease thereof 

 for twenty-one years, or three lives, if 

 it be made according to the statute, 32 

 Henry VIII. c. 28. The husband also 

 gains a chattel real, as a term for years, 

 to dispose of, if he please, by grant OP 

 lease in her life-time, or by surviving her: 

 otherwise it remains with the wife ; and 

 upon execution for the husband's debt, 

 the sheriff may sell the term during the 

 life of the wife. The husband also, by 

 marriage, hath an absolute gift of all chat- 

 tels personal, in possession of the wife in. 

 her own right, whether he survives her 

 or not. But if these chatties personal 

 are choses in action, that is, things to be 

 sued for by action, as debts by obligation, 

 contract, or the like, the husband shall 

 not have them, unless he and his wife re- 

 cover them. 



By custom in London a wife may car- 

 ry on a separate trade ; and, as such, is 

 liable to the statutes of bankruptcy, with 

 respect to the goods in such separate 

 trade, with which the husband cannot in- 

 termeddle. If the wife is indebted before 

 marriage, the husband is bound after- 

 wards to pay the debt, living with the 

 wife ; for he has adopted her and her 

 circumstances together ; but if the wife 

 die, the husband shall not be charged for 

 the debt of his wife after her death, if 

 the creditor of the wife do not get judg- 

 ment during the coverture. 



The husband is bound to provide his 

 wife necessaries, and if she contract for 

 them, he is obliged to pay for them ; but 

 for any thing besides necessaries, he is 

 not chargeable: and also, if a wife elope, 

 and live with another man, the husband 

 is not chargeable even for necessaries ; 

 at least if the persons who furnish them 

 be sufficiently apprised of her elope- 

 ment. A man having issue by his wife, 

 born alive, shall be tenant by the courtesy 

 of all the lands in fee simple, or fee-tail 

 general, of which she shall die seized ; 

 and after her death, he shall have all 

 chatties real ; as the term of the wife, 

 or a lease for years of the wife, and all 

 other chatties in possession ; and also 

 all such as are of a mixed nature (part- 

 ly in possession and partly in action), as 

 rents in arrear, incurred before the mar- 

 riage or after ; but things merely in ac,- 



