tlements, and power to 10. Nothing in this Act contained shall prevent any settlement A.D. 1869. being made, whether before or after marriage, respecting the Saving of property of any married woman, or shall interfere with or render existing setinoperative any restriction against anticipation at present attached 5 or to be hereafter attached to the enjoyment of any property or make future income by a wife under any settlement, agreement for a settle- settlements. ment, will, or other instrument; but no settlement or agreement for a settlement of a wife's own property to be made or entered into by herself, and no restriction against anticipation contained in any 10 such settlement or agreement for a settlement, shall (unless such settlement or agreement for a settlement have been made before marriage) have any greater force or validity against creditors of such wife than a like settlement or agreement for a settlement made or entered into by a man would have against his creditors. 15 women, during minority, to make binding settlements. covenants 11. Any woman during her minority may, with the consent of Power to her parent or guardian and of her intended husband, make or enter into any settlement or agreement for a settlement in contemplation of marriage, and the settlement or agreement for a settlement so made or entered into shall be as binding upon her, and 20 those claiming under her, as if she had been of full age at the date thereof; and where in any settlement or agreement for a settle- Saving of ment made in consideration of marriage before the first day of husband's January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, the wife or for settleintended wife being at the date thereof a minor, the husband or ment of after25 intended husband may have covenanted or agreed to settle the acquired after-acquired property of such wife or intended wife, such wife. covenant or agreement shall, after the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, be binding on and shall be enforceable during the marriage against the wife, and those 30 claiming under her, as if she had herself entered into it under the powers by this Act conferred. 35 property of 12. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of CommenceJanuary one thousand eight hundred and seventy. 13. This Act shall not extend to Scotland. ment of Act. Act not to extend to Scotland. 14. This Act may be cited as the " Married Women's Property Short Title Act, 1869." of Act. A BILL [AS AMENDED IN COMMITTEE] ΤΟ Amend the Law with respect to the Property of Married A.D. 1869. Women. WHEREAS it is desirable to amend the law of property and contract with respect to married women: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 5 and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. A married woman shall be capable of holding, acquiring, Married alienating, devising, and bequeathing real and personal estate, of woman to be capable of contracting, and of suing and being sued, as if she were a feme holding pro10 sole. perty and of contracting Provided, that nothing herein contained shall empower a married as a feme woman to dispose otherwise than by will of any freehold or copyhold sole. hereditaments, or any money subject to be invested in the purchase of freehold or copyhold hereditaments, or any future or reversionary 15 interest, whether vested or contingent, in personalty, or to release or extinguish any power which may be vested in her in regard to such freehold or copyhold hereditaments, money, or personal estate, but the power of disposition now vested in married women over all such hereditaments and other property shall remain the same as if 20 this Act had not passed. to be taken 2. No woman shall be liable to be taken in execution upon any Married judgment founded upon a contract made or act done by her during women not coverture, and no such judgment or execution thereon shall bind or in execution. affect any property except such personal estate (if any) as she may 25 be possessed of or entitled to for a present interest during her coverture. married after 3. Every woman who marries after this Act has come into Property of operation shall, notwithstanding her coverture, have and hold women all real and personal property, whether belonging to her before the Act to be held by marriage or acquired by her in any way after marriage, free from Property ac 4. Every woman married before this Act has come into opera- ried before the Act to be ried. The earn- woman to be contained shall exempt any such property from the operation of any settlement or covenant to which it would have been subject if this Act had not passed, or shall prejudice any rights or interest to which her husband or any person claiming through him may be entitled at the date at which this Act comes into operation. 10 5. The earnings of a married woman in any trade or other occupation carried on by her as a principal separately from her 15 husband shall be deemed to be her property acquired after marriage. 6. A husband shall not by reason of any marriage which shall on his wife's take place after this Act has come into operation be liable for the debts of his wife contracted before marriage, but the wife shall be liable for such debts as if she had continued unmarried. contracts before mar- Husband not torts. between 20 7. No husband shall by reason of the marriage be liable in for his wife's damages for any wrong committed by his wife during the coverture. 8. No husband or wife shall be entitled to sue the other in any 25 Restrictions as to actions action at law for a tort, except in respect of property; and in case husband and any action shall be brought by one against the other, it shall be competent for any judge of the court in which such action shall be brought, on the application in a summary way of the defendant, in case such judge shall think such action frivolous or vexatious, to 30 stay the proceedings thereon, either absolutely or upon such terms as to costs and otherwise as he shall think just. wife. contracts as Husband and 9. If a wife shall contract a debt as the agent of her husband, other. for indemnity, as in the ordinary case a surety has against the A.D. 1869. principal debtor. between chattels to 10. In any question between husband and wife as to the title Questions to or possession of property, either party may apply by summons or husband and 5 otherwise in a summary way to any judge of the High Court of wife as to Chancery, or (at the option of the applicant irrespectively of the be decided in value of the property in dispute) to the judge of the county court a summary of the district in which either party resides, and the judge of the way. High Court of Chancery or of the county court (as the case may be) 10 may make such order with respect to the property in dispute, and as to the costs of and consequent on the application, as he thinks fit, or may direct such application to stand over from time to time, and any inquiry touching the matters in question to be made in such manner as he shall think fit: Provided always, that any 15 order of a judge of the High Court of Chancery to be made under the provisions of this section shall be subject to appeal in the same way as an order made by the same judge in a suit pending in the said court would be, and any order of a county court judge under the provisions of this section shall be subject to appeal in the same 20 way as an order made by the same judge on an equitable plaint would be; provided also, that the judge of the High Court of Chancery or of the county court, if either party so require, may hear such application in his private room. 11. When a wife having real or personal estate has allowed her Husband's 25 husband to receive the rents and profits or income thereof, the account for liability to husband shall not by force of such receipt be held liable to account wife's infor such rents, profits, or income. come and personalty. liable to the tenance of 12. Where the husband of any woman having property of her Married own becomes chargeable to any union or parish, the justices having woman to be 30 jurisdiction'in such union or parish may, in petty sessions assembled, parish for upon application of the guardians of the poor, issue a summons the mainagainst the wife, and make and enforce such order against her for her husband. the maintenance of her husband as by the thirty-third section of "The Poor Law Amendment Act, 1868," they may now make and 35 enforce against a husband for the maintenance of his wife, who becomes chargeable to any union or parish. woman to 13. A married woman having property of her own shall be sub- Married ject to all such liability, for the maintenance of her children, as a be liable widow is now by law subject to for the maintenance of her children: to the parish 40 Provided always, that nothing in this Act shall relieve her husband for the mainfrom any liability at present imposed upon him by law to maintain her children. her children. tenance of |