Page:The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives. Bodleian copy.pdf/40

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To which I reply, that ſuppoſing ſhe does retain that reverſionary Property (which conſidering the Authority of the Huſband ſhe may not always be able to do) yet Jointures are not ſufficient for all Occaſions.

Few Wives who have Jointures, have any other Proviſion, and all Wives who have no other Proviſion, may be liable to the Hardſhips which ſhall exemplify in the following Caſe.

A young Lady, well born, with five thouſand Pounds to her Portion, married a Gentleman poſſeſt of an hundred and ſeventy Pounds per Annum, which ſhe accepted of, as a jointure for her five thouſand Pounds. As the Gentleman was one of the learned Profeſſions, he had beſides his real Eſtate, ſome Places which brought him in a conſiderable Revenue: Before this Marriage he was bound for his Father, for a large Sum of Money, and was alſo in Debt himſelf; both which he concealed from her, neither did ſhe ever know it, till after his Death, which happened five Years after their Marriage. In that Time ſhe had had four Children, and was breeding of the fifth when he died. Her Father-in-law died a Month before her Huſband, and in a ſhort Time after her Huſband's Death the old Gentleman's principal Creditor took out Letters of Admini-

ſtration