NCJ Number
178708
Date Published
1998
Length
142 pages
Annotation
This book gives an account of the origins of women's rights to their children and property, with attention to the British court cases of Henrietta Greenhill and Caroline Norton, which led to the British Infant Custody Act 1839 and Matrimonial Causes Act 1857.
Abstract
The introduction provides an overview of the "law of the land" in 19th-century Great Britain concerning women and their legal status within marriage and the family. Under the law, at the moment of their marriages women virtually ceased to exist as separate individuals. All their personal property -- including money, jewelry, clothes, and personal articles -- became the property of their husbands to do with as they pleased. A wife had no status to enter into a contract. Because a married woman had no individual identity, the parental rights were exercised by the father. He was entitled to the custody of the children, and the common law regarded him as their natural guardian. Nothing the father could do within the marriage and family, no matter how abusive, could deprive him of his parental right to custody of the children. This book presents two cases that challenged the legal status of women in Great Britain regarding child custody. Part One of the book is "Henrietta's Story," which provides an account of the marriage of Henrietta Greenhill to Benjamin Greenhill and the legal fight over the custody of their three daughters. The case culminated in Henrietta's evading British law by fleeing with her children to France. Part Two is "Caroline's Story," which profiles the history of the long-running legal battles between Caroline Norton and her husband George concerning children, money, and property. This case greatly influenced the passage of the Custody of Infants Act 1839 and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, whereby women's legal rights were recognized for the first time. A list of cases, the Custody of Infants Act 1839, and a subject index