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From: Connie Lenzen <>
Subject: [APG] Vermont probate
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 19:13:41 -0800


Thanks to the list-members who answered my question about Vermont probate.

Yes, I will put George Ryskamp's article in a prominent place on my
bookshelf. I printed it out from my copy of the CD version of the
NGS Quarterly, Volumes 1-85. Thank you, Elizabeth, for the citation.


Langdon Hagen-Long sent a "private" reply where he told me about
"femme covert." I went on-line to Google.com and found the following
definition:

Article Title: "Femme Covert (or feme covert)"
Author: Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn
Compilation Title: The Encyclopedia of Women's History in America
Place of Publication: New York Publisher: Facts on File Date of
Publication: 1996 Pages: p. 71
Subject Descriptors: Marriage; Women's rights; Femme Covert

Femme Covert (or feme covert)

COPYRIGHT: Copyright 1996 by Facts on File. All rights reserved.

The common law principle, imported to the American colonies from
England, that stripped a woman of her civil existence upon marriage.
As The Lawes Resolutions of Women's Rights (London, 1603) explains it:

Man and wife are one person, but understand in what manner. When a
small brooke or little river incorporateth with Rhodanus, Humber or
the Thames, the poor rivulet looseth its name, it is carried and
recarried with the new associate, it beareth no sway, it possesseth
nothing during coverture. A woman as soon as she is married, is
called covert, in Latin, nupta, that is, veiled, as it were, clouded
and overshadowed, she hath lost her streame . . . To a married woman,
her new self is her superior, her companion, her master.

Married women could not own property. Their inheritances and any
wages earned became the property of their husbands. They had no right
to refuse the sexual advances of their husbands, nor did they have
joint guardianship of their own children. (A husband could place his
children in apprenticeships without the consent of their mother and,
in his will, he could name a guardian other than the children's
mother.)

There were regional differences in the application of this principle.
Some Southern colonies, for example, had very strict laws requiring
an independent examination of a wife before a husband could sell
property that had originated in his wife's family. Dower-a widow's
right to the use (but not the ownership) of one-third of her
husband's real property for the remainder of her own life-was also
considered one ameliorating consideration.

On line at http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/1univ/hist/ws/content-d8.htm
Downloaded 26 July 2002.
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It was suggested that Polly would have been examined separately. I,
too, have seen this separate examination on deeds. I looked for it on
this deed. There was no separate examination of Polly ,either on this
deed or on a subsequent page in the deed book.

It was also suggested that Polly's signature should be on the deed. It was not.

Polly was a non-person, a person who "hath lost her streame."

She was a non-person throughout her life. There is no record of her
death, sometime between 1829 when she gave birth to her last child
and 1836 when her husband's second wife, Betsey (Gould) Spencer, gave
birth to their first child.

The 1830 Woodstock census for Levi Whitney shows a woman between the
ages of 40 and 50, but we do not know if this is Polly or a female
relative who is in the home. It is not Betsey, for she is still with
her first husband, Aaron Spencer.

Levi's 1850 probate in Woodstock provided funds for a tombstone for
his former wife, not named, in the Village Cemetery.

We find Polly's given name only through her children's death records.
They give their parent's names as Levi and Polly Whitney.

The final touch is this deed that she could not sign, but it gives us
her parent's names.

Connie









~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Connie Lenzen, CGRS*
10411 SW 41st Avenue
Portland, OR 97219-6984

Phone: 503-244-4357
Fax: 503-245-4723

Connie's webpage: http://www.orednet.org/~clenzen/

*CGRS is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists
and is used under license by board-certified associates.

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