English
common law defined the role of the wife as a
feme covert, emphasising her subordination to her husband, and putting her under the "protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord". Upon marriage, the husband and wife became one person under the law, as the property of the wife was surrendered to her husband, and her status as a separate legal personality with the ability to own property, and sue and be sued solely in her own name ceased to exist. Any personal property acquired by the wife during the marriage, unless specified that it was for her own separate use, went automatically to her husband. If a woman writer had copyright before marriage, the copyright would pass to the husband afterwards, for instance. Further, a married woman was unable to draft a will or dispose of any property without her husband's consent. Women were limited in what they could inherit. Males were more likely to receive
real property (land), while females with brothers were sometimes limited to inherited personal property, which included clothing, jewellery, household furniture, food, and all movable goods. In an instance where no will was found, the English law of primogeniture automatically gave the oldest son the right to all real property, and the daughter only inherited real property in the absence of a male heir. The law of intestate primogeniture remained on the statute books in Britain until the
Law of Property Act 1925 simplified and updated England's archaic law of real property. This could be done by conveying property to 'feoffees-to-use', or trustees, who would legally hold the property 'to her use' (in respect of income) and to her offspring (as the ultimate beneficiaries). The wife would then receive the benefits of the property through her control of the trustees and would be able to dispose of it after her death by will amongst the offspring of the marriage''''''. In contrast to wives, women who never married or who were widowed maintained control over their property and inheritance, owned land and controlled property-disposal, since by law any unmarried adult female was a
feme sole. Once married, the only way that women could reclaim property was through widowhood. The few exceptions of married women who were
femes sole were queens of England, and
Margaret Beaufort, who was declared to be a
feme sole by a 1485 act of parliament passed by
her son, in spite of the fact that Beaufort was still married to
Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. The dissolution of a marriage, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left the divorced females impoverished, as the law offered them no rights to marital property. The 1836
Caroline Norton court-case highlighted the injustice of English property-laws, and generated enough support to result in the Married Women's Property Act. == Provisions ==