Act for the more effectual protection of the property of married women
Item
An act for the more effectual protection of the property of married women.
The people of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
1. The real and personal property of any female who may hereafter marry, and which she shall own at the time of marriage, and the rents[?] issues and profits thereof, shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separate property, as if she were a single female.
2. The real and personal property, and the rents[?], issues and profits thereof, of any female now married shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, ______________, but shall be her sole and separate property as if she were a single female except so far as the same may be liable for the debts of her husband heretofore contracted.
3. It shall be lawful for any married female to receive, by gift, grant, desire[?] or bequest, from any person other than her husband, and hold to her sole and separate use, as if she were a single female. Real and personal property, as well as the rents[?], issues and profits thereof, and the same shall not be subjected to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts.
4. All contracts made between persons in contemplation of marriage shall remain in full force after such marriage takes place.
State of New York
In Senate, March 29th, 1848.
This bill was read the third time and passed.
By order of the Senate.
BACK PAGE:
State of New York, Secretary's Office.
This act having been approved and signed by the GOvernor on the 7th day of April 1848, I do hereby certify that the same became a law on that day.
Christopher Morgan, Secretary of State.
- Title
- Act for the more effectual protection of the property of married women
- Subject
- Women's rights--New York (State)
- Right of property--United States--History
- Women--History--19th century
- Law--New York (State)
- Description
- The Laws of 1848, Chapter 200, gave women the right to maintain property separate from their husbands. For the time, the law was quite radical. This law offered a way out from men's debts and money mismanagement — yet for working women, this newfound right was likely neither known by nor meant to apply to them. Working women, to be clear, were the most likely to end up in the poorhouse based on the death of a husband or a husband’s financial neglect. The law signals a growing divide between middle- and upper-class women and the female poor and the differing ways they advocated for their rights as women. Working women did seek certain everyday rights in the nineteenth century, but women's rights activists largely left working women out of their purview unless expressing concern for their “betterment.”
- Creator
- New York State Legislature
- Date
- 1848-03-29
- Source
- New York State Legislature, "Enrolled acts of the State Legislature, Laws of 1848," ratified in 1848. Originally available from the New York State Archives, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records. URL: http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/10821
- Rights
- Public domain, via New York State Archives
- Type
- Legal document [handwritten]
- Format
- TIFF
- Language
- English
- Coverage
- Expansion and Reform (1801–1861)
- How to Cite
- New York State Legislature, "Enrolled acts of the State Legislature, Laws of 1848," ratified in 1848. Originally available from the New York State Archives, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records. Accessed [today's date] from https://aphnyu.org/creatingdigitalhistory/fall2019/s/uncoveringnyc/item/93.
