OF BARON AND FEMME, OF PARENT AND CHILD, GUARDIAN AND WARD, MASTER AND OF THE POWERS OF THE COURTS OF CHANCERY; WITH AN ESSAY ON THE TERMS HEIR, HEIRS, HEIRS OF THE BODY. BY TAPPING REEVE. THIRD EDITION, WITH NOTES AND REFERENCES TO ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CASES. BY AMASA J. PARKER AND CHARLES E. BALDWIN, COUNSELORS-AT-LAW. ALBANY: WILLIAM GOULD, LAW PUBLISHER. 1862. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1846, by CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the District of Vermont. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1857, by in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the District of Vermont. Entered according to act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixtytwo, by WILLIAM GOULD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York. 369334 WEED, PARSONS & CO., PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. IT HAS been the object of the editors, in preparing this edition to furnish ample references to the statutes and decisions of the different states, so that the work shall present the condition of the law as it now exists in this country. In accomplishing this labor they have been very much aided by R. A. WIGHT, Esq., who was originally associated in the undertaking of preparing the notes, but found himself obliged to relinquish it on account of pressing professional engagements. The radical changes recently made in the law of "Baron and Femme" by the legislatures of some of the states, together with the decisions that have been made under them, are fully referred to in the notes and necessarily occupy much space. These changes are still in progress, and for many years to come, the law on that subject will no doubt be in a "transition state." The result will probably be an entire revolution in the law affecting the rights and liabilities of married women. The other subjects of this treatise have been but little affected by legislation in the different states. In regard to them the common law, generally, remains unchanged, except within the limits of judicial discretion, in applying well-established rules to new combinations of fact, and adapting them to the peculiar institutions of the country. The cases referred to, fortunately, show great unanimity among the different courts, which could have been attained only by a proper respect for the judicial decisions of sister states, and a sincere desire to build up a system of American law, uniform and harmonious as well as just and beneficent. ALBANY, May 20, 1862. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE value of the work of the late Judge REEVE on the legal character of the Domestic Relations is so generally recognized, that no apology will be demanded by the profession for its republication. Although it is now thirty years since its first appearance, it has not been superseded by any later treatise, and it still continues to be the standard work on the subjects of which it treats. Without claiming for it what can be ascribed to no elementary essay, the character of an authority, which can properly belong only to adjudged cases, we may nevertheless safely affirm, that it is the best existing exposition of those titles of the law, which it professes to discuss; and though subsequent legislation has, in many of the American states, changed the reciprocal rights and duties of the parties, yet it will be found that the author has in general correctly stated the principles upon which the common law has regulated those rights and duties, and to which American legislation concerning them has always had reference. The editor of the present edition, therefore, hopes that he is doing something towards the discharge of that debt, which, according to high authority, "every man oweth unto his profession," in presenting to his brethren a republication of Judge REEVE's original work, accompanied with as full notes |