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174 THE ¦ . MAKNEB " OP LIFE OF
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* !For Five Centuries Koine Lield Britai...
" A wife is mentioned who devised land by will , with the consent of her husbandin his lifetime . We read also of land which a
wife had sold in , her husband ' s life . We frequently find wives the parties to a sale of landand still pftener we read of . estates given
to women , or devised by , men of affluence to their wives . Widows selling property is also a common occurrence . That they
inherited land is also clear , for a case is mentioned , wherein , there being" no male heirthe estate went to a female . Women appear
as tenants in _cairite , in the Doomsday Book . There are many instances of land being' granted to both husband and wife . The
queens frequently join in the charters with the kings , and it is once mentioned that a widow and the heirs were sued for her
husband ' s debts . Indeed the instances of women having property transferred to them , and also of their transmitting it to others ,
surround us on all sides . To name only a few : a ting ' s mother gave five hides of land to a noble matronwhich she guve to a
monastery . When a bishop had bought some , lands of a husband and wife , he fixed a day when she should come and surrender them ,
because she had a greater right to the land by a former husband . A mother bequeathed property to her children ; and Alfred , in his
will , gave estates to his three daughters . " If a wiclow married again within the year , she forfeited all
claim to her husband ' s estate ; otherwise , by the laws of Canute , she of whatever had a right had , whether been acquired there were hy children herself or and not husb , to an _" one d jointl -third y
during The care marriage of the . " children also devolved on the widow , but until
the eldest child came of age , they were subject to the guardianship of her father ' s relations .
Here it may be well to glance for a moment at the leading feature of Saxon jurisprudence , the principle of pecuniary compensation for injury . Therewas the protection of the were and the
privilege of the mund . The , _tvere was the legal valuation of the ing according to his condition in life"If he were
kille person d it , vary was the penalty his murderer had to pay for , his crime ; if he committed crimes it was the penalty which , in many cases , he
had to discharge . " * The mund or mundbyrd was the right of civil protectionwhichlike the zverevaried according to the class to
which the , individu , al belonged . _, After marriage , the right of protection or mund was transferred from the father to the husband ,
but widows were protected by a double fine . Pour classes are enumerated , the widow of the eorlcund , of the landholder , of
the freeman or ceorl , and of the bondsman . By the laws of Ethelfift bert y , shillings Xing of , that Kent of , the an king eorl _^ s by mund twent was y shillings guarded . "by But a penalty the mund of
* Dunham .
174 The ¦ . Makneb " Op Life Of
174 THE ¦ . MAKNEB " OP LIFE OF
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1863, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051863/page/30/
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