real estate continued to his death. He could forbid her to buy a loaf of bread or a pound of sugar, or contract for a load of wood to keep the family warm. She did not own a rag of her own clothing. She had no personal rights, and could hardly call her soul her own.
Her husband could steal her children, rob her of her clothing, and her earnings, neglect to support the family; and she had no legal redress. If a wife earned money by her labor, the husband could claim the pay as his share of the proceeds. There is a clause sometimes found in old wills, to the effect that if a widow marry again, she shall forfeit all right to her husband's property. The most conservative judge in the commonwealth would now rule that a widow cannot be kept from her fair share of the property, by any such unjust restriction. In a husband's eyes of a hundred and fifty years ago, a woman's mission was accomplished after she had been his wife and borne his children. What more could be desired of her, he argued, but a corner somewhere in which, respectably dressed as his relict, she could sit down and mourn for him, for the rest of her life.[1]
The law no longer sanctions such a will, but provides that the widow shall have a fair share of all personal property. If a widow permits herself to-day to be defrauded of her legal rights in the division of property, it is her own fault, and because she does not study and understand for herself the general statutes of Massachusetts, and the laws concerning the rights of married women. The result of thirty years of property legislation for women is well stated by Mr. Sewall in his admirable pamphlet, in which he says, "the last thirty years have done more to improve the law for married women than the four hundred preceding." The legislature has, during this time, enacted laws allowing women to vote in parishes and religious societies, declaring that women must become members of the board of trustees of the three State primary and reform schools, of the State workhouse, of the State almshouse at Tewksbury, and of the board of prison commissioners; also, that certain officers and managers of the reformatory prison for women at Sherborn "shall be women." Without legislation, women now are school supervisors, overseers of the poor, trustees of public libraries and members of the State
- ↑ In an old will, made a hundred and fifty years ago, a husband of large means bequeathed to his "dearly beloved wife" $50 and a new suit of clothes, with the injunction that she should return to her original, or family home. And with this small sum, as her share of his property, he returned her to her parents.
