Married Women Bankrupts in the Age of Coverture
Karen Pearlston,
Corresponding Author
Karen Pearlston
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Karen Pearlston is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and can be reached at [email protected]. Search for more papers by this authorKaren Pearlston,
Corresponding Author
Karen Pearlston
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Karen Pearlston is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and can be reached at [email protected]. Search for more papers by this authorFunding for this project was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (doctoral fellowship) and by Osgoode Hall Law School (graduate fellowships); the York University Department of History; the Law Foundation of New Brunswick; and the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick. Osgoode Hall Law School generously provided support in the form of office space on three separate occasions.
The author would like to thank Douglas Hay, Barbara Todd, Iain Ramsay, James Muir, Aloke Chatterjee, David Bell, Thomas Kuttner, the members of the Toronto Legal History Group, and the anonymous referees at Law & Social Inquiry for their insightful comments and other assistance. Thanks also to Daniel Glover, Toby Stoddart, and Shane Martinez for their capable research assistance.
Abstract
Many married women with separate property held their property as stock-in-trade and traded independently from their husbands. However, if the business failed, a married woman trader's ability to take advantage of bankruptcy process depended on the exception to coverture according to which she held her separate property. This article is the first to examine reported bankruptcy cases involving married women in their doctrinal context and in relation to other exceptions to coverture. It analyzes the issues arising in the eighteenth century and argues that they should be understood in relation to the larger picture of married women's law, especially the law of private separation. The article also considers the oblique relationship between private separation jurisprudence and married women's bankruptcy in the nineteenth century, a relationship that was bridged by a line of cases that, on the surface, seem to be unrelated.
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English:
Canadian:
ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS
- City of London Record Office, London, UK. Letter Book N, fol. 96, 28 Sept. 10 H. 8 [1519] s.v. “Sole merchaunt.
- Lincoln's Inn Library, London, UK. Ms. Misc. 895 “Reports in the King's Bench, 1765–1770,” available as fiche no. C-498, Lavie v. Phillips, English Legal Manuscripts, v.2 (Zug, Switzerland, Inter Documentation Co., 1978).
