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A Comparison of the Status of Widows in Eighteenth-Century England and Colonial America.

This thesis compares the status of upper-class widows in England to Colonial America. The common law traditions in England established dower, which was also used in the American colonies. Dower guaranteed widows the right to one-third of the land and property of her husband. Jointure was instituted in England in 1536 and enabled men to bypass dower and settle a yearly sum on a widow. The creation of jointure was able to proliferate in England due to the cash-centered economy, but jointure never manifested itself in Colonial America because of the land centered economy. These two types of inheritance form the background for the argument that upper-class women in Colonial America had more legal and economical freedoms than their brethren in England.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc4507
Date05 1900
CreatorsJones, Sarah E.
ContributorsMorris, Marilyn, Chet, Guy, Stern, Laura
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
FormatText
RightsPublic, Copyright, Jones, Sarah E., Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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