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The Married Women's Property Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.75) was an Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
that significantly altered English law regarding the property rights of married women, which besides other matters allowed married women to own and control property in their own right. The Act applied in England (and Wales) and Ireland, but did not extend to Scotland. The Married Women's Property Act was a model for similar legislation in other British territories. For example, Victoria passed legislation in 1884, New South Wales in 1889, and the remaining Australian colonies passed similar legislation between 1890 and 1897.


English women's property rights

English common law defined the role of the wife as a ''
feme covert Coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was a legal doctrine in the English common law in which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband, so that she had no independent legal existence of her own. ...
'', emphasising her subordination to her husband, and putting her under the "protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord". Upon marriage, the husband and wife became one person under the law, as the property of the wife was surrendered to her husband, and her status as a separate legal personality, with the ability to own property, and sue and be sued solely in her own name, ceased to exist. Any personal property acquired by the wife during the marriage, unless specified that it was for her own separate use, went automatically to her husband. If a woman writer had copyright before marriage, the copyright would pass to the husband afterwards, for instance. Further, a married woman was unable to draft a will or dispose of any property without her husband's consent. Women were limited in what they could inherit. Males were more likely to receive
real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or aff ...
(land), while females with brothers were sometimes limited to inherited personal property, which included clothing, jewellery, household furniture, food, and all moveable goods.Hiam Brinjikji,
Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England
.
In an instance where no will was found, the English law of primogeniture automatically gave the oldest son the right to all real property, and the daughter only inherited real property in the absence of a male heir. The law of intestate primogeniture remained on the statute books in Britain until the 1925 property legislation simplified and updated England's archaic law of real property. Aware of their daughters' unfortunate situation, fathers often provided them with dowries or worked into a
prenuptial agreement A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement (commonly referred to as a prenup), is a written contract entered into by a couple prior to marriage or a civil union that enables them to select and control many of the leg ...
pin money, the estate which the wife was to possess for her sole and separate use not subject to the control of her husband, to provide her with an income separate from his. This could be done by conveying property to 'feoffees-to-use', or trustees, who would legally hold the property 'to her use', and for which she would be the equitable and beneficial owner. The wife would then receive the benefits of the property through her control of the trustees and her right in the law of equity as the beneficial owner. In contrast to wives, women who never married or who were widowed maintained control over their property and inheritance, owned land and controlled property disposal, since by law any unmarried adult female was a '' femme sole''. Once married, the only way that women could reclaim property was through widowhood. The few exceptions of married women who were femmes sole were queens of England, and Margaret Beaufort, who was declared to be a femme sole by a 1485 act of parliament passed by
her son ''Her Son'' is a 1920 British silent drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with a ...
, in spite of the fact Beaufort was still married to Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. The dissolution of a marriage, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left the divorced females impoverished, as the law offered them no rights to marital property. The 1836
Caroline Norton Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, Lady Stirling-Maxwell (22 March 1808 – 15 June 1877) was an active English social reformer and author.Perkin, pp. 26–28. She left her husband in 1836, who sued her close friend Lord Melbourne, then the Whig ...
court case highlighted the injustice of English property laws, and generated enough support to result in the Married Women's Property Act.


The Act

After years of political lobbying, the Married Women's Property Act addressed the grievances presented by English women. The Act altered the common law doctrine of coverture to include the wife's right to own, buy and sell her separate property. Wives' legal identities were also restored, as the courts were forced to recognize a husband and a wife as two separate legal entities, in the same manner as if the wife was a
feme sole Coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was a legal doctrine in the English common law in which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband, so that she had no independent legal existence of her own. U ...
. Married women's legal rights included the right to sue and be sued. Any damages a wife might pay would be her own responsibility, instead of that of her husband. Married women were then also liable for their own debts, and any outside trade they owned was subject to bankruptcy laws. Further, married women were able to hold stock in their own names.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca ...
credited
Ursula Bright Ursula Mellor Bright or Ursula Mellor (5 July 1835 – 5 March 1915) was a British activist for married women's property rights. Life Bright was born in 1835 to Joseph and Catherine Mellor. Her father, brother and grandfather, Frederick Pennin ...
with the achievement in getting the bill passed, writing 'for ten consecutive years she gave her special attention to this bill … was unwearied in her efforts, in rolling up petitions, scattering tracts, holding meetings' As of 2016, most of the Act has been repealed. The remaining sections are 6, 10, 11 and 17. Of these, one of the more important was s. 11, which provided that a widow could ''in her own right'' enforce her late husband's life assurance policy. (Also, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 enables both men and women to enforce contracts drawn up by others for their benefit.)


See also

*
Coverture Coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was a legal doctrine in the English common law in which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband, so that she had no independent legal existence of her own. U ...
*
Married Women's Property Act 1870 The Married Women's Property Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict c 93) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed married women to be the legal owners of the money they earned and to inherit property. Background Before 1870, any money made ...
*
Married Women's Property Acts in the United States The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was based in New York City, the movement was created by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The Married Women's Property Acts are laws enacted by the individual states of the United States ...
*
Primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...


Further reading

* Amy Louise Erickson, ''Women and Property in Early Modern England'' (London: Routledge, 1993). * Dorothy Stetson, ''A Woman's Issue: The Politics of Family Law Reform in England'' (London: Greenwood, 1982). * Mary Lyndon Shanley, ''Feminism, Marriage, and Law in Victorian England, 1850-1895'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). * Ben Griffin, ''Class, Gender, and Liberalism in Parliament, 1868-1882: The Case of the Married Women's Property Acts'', ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp. 59–87.


References


External links

* {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1882 Women's rights legislation Property law of the United Kingdom Women's rights in the United Kingdom 1882 in women's history