To be barred of estate, unless she renounces bequest or devise. 27 Md. 547; 40 Md. 461, 537. late of 1831, c. 315, s. 2. within six months after the first grant of administration upon her dower or share husband's estate, she shall deliver or transmit to the court, or regisin personal ter of wills where administration has been granted, a written renunciation in the following form, or to the following effect: "I, A. B., 26 Md. 274, 366; widow of deceased, do hereby renounce and quit all claim to any bequest or devise made to me by the last will of my husband, exhibited and proved according to law; and I elect to take in lieu thereof, my dower or legal share of the estate of my Form of renun- said husband." But by renouncing all claim to a devise or bequest, or devises or bequests of personal property made to her by the will of her husband, she shall be entitled to one third part of the personal estate of her husband which shall remain after payment of his just debts and claims against him, and no more. Time within which. ciation. Id. s. 286. 1798, c. 101, devise of part of Id. s. 287. 229. If the will of the husband devise a part of both real and personal estate, she shall renounce the whole, or be otherwise barred of her right to both real and personal estate. 230. If the will devise only a part of the real estate, or only a part of the personal estate, the devise shall bar her of only the real or personal estate, as the case may require; provided, nevertheless, that if the devise of either real or personal estate, or of both, shall estate, or only a be expressly in lieu of her legal share of one or both, she shall accordingly be barred unless she renounce as aforesaid. part of personal estate. 5 Md. 534. Id. s. 288. by devise. 13 Md. 443. Art. 93, s. 291. 1849, c. 543, s. 1. Widow may choose house ment. Provisos. to exceed as 231. But if in effect nothing shall pass by such devise, she shall not be thereby barred, whether she shall or shall not renounce as aforesaid, it being the intent of this article and consonant to justice, that a widow accepting or abiding by a devise, in lieu of her legal right, shall be considered as a purchaser with a fair consideration. WIDOW'S DISTRIBUTIVE SHARE. 232. In all cases where administration shall be granted, and an inventory and appraisement of the personal estate of the decedent hold furniture, shall have been returned by the administrator to the Orphans' ete, at appraise- Court, the widow of such deceased person shall have the right to take to herself and apply to her own use and the use of her children, such household and kitchen furniture, or other personal property; as she may choose; provided, the same shall not exceed in value, acWhat sum not cording to the inventory and appraisement, the sum of one hundred appraised. and fifty dollars; and provided further, that the amount of personal property so selected to be taken, by her, shall be deducted from her distributive share of said personal estate: this section not to apply if the decedent left real estate to the value of one thousand dollars. 233. If the widow have no children and the decedent is solvent, tion of solvent then the widow shall have the right to take and apply to her own use such property to the said amount of one hundred and fifty dol perty, childless lars, under the provisions of the last preceding section; but if the widow have no children and the decedent, is insolvent, then the 1862, c. 101. What propor or insolvent decedents' pro widow to take. widow shall only be allowed to take and apply to her own use such property to the amount of seventy-five dollars. 1849, c. 543, s. 3. to be allowed 234. The administrator of the decedent shall make return in Art. 93, s. 293. writing, of the articles, and the amount so taken by the widow, to- Administrator gether with her receipt for the same, to the Orphans' Court grant- for property ing administration, upon which return so being made, the court shall allow him a credit for the same upon his administration ac count. taken. TITLE XXV. Domestic Relations. ARTICLE 51. HUSBAND AND WIFE. ARTICLE 52. GUARDIAN AND WARD. ARTICLE 53. GUARDIANSHIP OF NON-COMPOTES MENTIS, INSANE, AND 17. Courts of equity to hear and determine all 18. Alimony in cases of divorce. causes for alimony. WIFE'S PROPERTY. 19. Property of married women protected from 24. Insurance for benefit of wife. 27. Receipts of married woman good for de- 28. Distress for rents; re-entry authorized under leases to married women. 29. Married women empowered to covenant. 30. How married woman to convey. Art. 60, s. 1. 1777, c. 12, s. 1. Void within prohibited degrees. Id. s. 2. 1777, c. 12, s. 1. Whom a man 22 Md. 468. MARRIAGES. 1. If any person within this State shall marry within any of the degrees of kindred or affinity expressed in the following table, the marriage shall be void: 2. A man shall not marry: His grandmother, shall not marry. His grandfather's wife, His wife's grandmother, Whom a woman shall not marry. His father's sister, Id. s. 3. 1860, c. 271. heretofore made, declared valid. 3. All marriages heretofore made and celebrated in or out of this What marriages State by and between persons related within the following degrees of affinity, to wit: a man and his niece, or a woman and her nephew, are hereby confirmed and made valid to every intent and purpose, from the time of the celebration of such marriages respectively; and every such marriage shall be held and taken, by all courts of this State, to be good and sufficient in law to all intents and purposes. 35 Md. 361. 1777, c. 12, s. 3. to be celebrated. 4. The rites of marriage between any white persons, citizens or Id. s. 4. inhabitants of this State, shall not be celebrated by any person By whom rites within this State, unless by some minister of the gospel, ordained 28 Md. 607; 35 according to the rites and ceremonies of his or her church, or in Md. 361 38 Md. such manner as is used and practiced by the society of people called 175. Quakers. 93; 3 Wallace, 1868, c. 42. License or pub lication of bans. 5. No persons within this State shall marry without a license, as hereinafter directed, or before the names of the parties intending to marry shall be thrice published in some church, or house of religious worship, in the county where the woman resides, on three several Sundays, by some minister residing in said county. Nevertheless, it is provided that any persons within this State may marry according to the ceremony used by the society of people called Quakers; Friends. provided, the contracting parties shall sign a certificate to the effect Certificate. that they have agreed to take each other for husband and wife, and that the said certificate has been attested by at least twelve witnesses; and provided, further, that the said certificate shall, within sixty days, be recorded either amongst the records of the society to To be recorded. which either of the contracting parties may belong, or in some court of record in the city or county in which the said marriage may be accomplished. 1777, c. 12, s. 7. In what shall be pub 6. Every church, or house of religious worship, shall be recorded Art. 60, s. 6. in the records of the Circuit Court of the county wherein it is situated, and none shall be esteemed as such for the publication of marriage agreeably to the preceding section, unless so recorded. 7. All licenses for marriage shall be signed and issued by the clerk of the Circuit Court for the county where the woman resides, or by the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, if she resides in the city of Baltimore; and the clerk shall receive therefor the sum of four dollars and fifty cents, four dollars thereof to be paid into the treasury, and fifty cents to be retained by the clerk. churches bans lished. 1a. s. 7. 13; 1826. c. 247, 3; 1852, c. 308, 1777, c. 12, ss. 12, s. 1; 1853, c. 86, 2 Licenses. Cost. Id. s 8. What marriages 3 Wallace, 175. 8. The Circuit Courts for the several counties and the Superior Court of Baltimore City may, upon petition of either of the parties, inquire into, hear, and determine, and the Circuit Courts for the several counties, and the Criminal Court of Baltimore, on indictment, Bl. 476; may inquire into, hear, and determine the validity of any marriage, and may declare any marriage contrary to the table in this article, or any second marriage, the first subsisting, null and void; and on appeal the depositions and evidence given in the cause shall be transmitted with the record to the Court of Appeals, and thereupon such To be tried de cause shall be heard, determined, and adjudged de novo. novo on appeal. tofore made persons, valid. 9. All marriages heretofore made and celebrated in this State by 1867, c. 423. and between colored people, are hereby confirmed and made valid, Marriages hereto every intent and purpose, from the time of the celebration of such between colored marriages, respectively; and every such marriage shall be held and 36 Md. 447, 459; taken by all courts of this State to be good and sufficient in law, to 1 H. & Mell, 563, all intents and purposes; provided, that in every case, the parties claiming to have been married by a competent person, shall, by suffi- established. 45 Md. 144; Fact to be Evidence to be recorded. 1867, c. 423. License to marry colored persons. cient proof before some justice of the peace, establish the fact of having been so married, a certificate of which shall be filed with the clerk of the Circuit Court of the county in which said marriage was celebrated, or the Court of Common Pleas of Baltimore City, and be preserved with the register of marriage licenses in the office of the said clerk. 10. In all marriages hereafter celebrated between colored persons, the parties, or some one in their behalf, shall present to the clergyman solemnizing the rites of a marriage, a license, as required in other cases of marriage; and any such clergyman is hereby prohibited from solemnizing such marriage without the production of licenses. Art. 16, s. 24. 1841, C. 263, 8.1 Applications for c. 330, s. divorce. Md. 480; 33 Md. Process and proceedings. 1872, c. 272. a vinculo. DIVORCES. 11. The courts of equity of this State shall have jurisdiction of all applications for divorce, and any person desiring a divorce shall file his or her bill in the court either where the party complainant or defendant resides, or if the party against whom the bill is filed be a non-resident, then such bill may be filed in the court where the complainant resides; and upon such bill the same process by summons, notice, or otherwise, shall be had to procure the answer and appearance of a defendant as is had in other cases in chancery; and in all cases where from the default of the defendant a bill in chancery may be taken pro confesso, the court, on a bill for divorce, shall order a commission to take testimony to issue ex parte, and shall decide the case upon the proof taken under such commission. 12. Upon the hearing of any bill for a divorce, the court may decree a divorce a vinculo matrimonii for the following causes, to wit first, the impotence of either party at the time of the marriage ; 328, 401:38 Md. secondly, for any cause which, by the laws of this State, render a Md. 49; 33 Md. 357, 529; 5 Gill 252; 1 Bl. 471. Causes for granting. marriage null and void ab initio; thirdly, for adultery; fourthly, when the court shall be satisfied by competent testimony that the party complained against has abandoned the party complaining, and that such abandonment has continued uninterruptedly for at least three years, and is deliberate and final, and the separation of the parties beyond any reasonable expectation of reconciliation; fifthly, when the woman before marriage has been guilty of illicit carnal intercourse with another man, the same being unknown to the husband at the time of the marriage, and when such carnal connection shall be proved to the satisfaction of the court; and in all cases where a divorce a vinculo matrimonii is decreed for adultery or abandonment, the court may, in its discretion, decree that the the court as to guilty party shall not contract marriage with any other person during the lifetime of the other party, in which case the bond of matrimony shall be deemed not to be dissolved as to any future marriage of such guilty party, contracted in violation of such decree, or in any prosecution on account thereof. Discretion of guilty party not re-marrying. 1872, c. 272. Divorces a mensa et thoro. 13. Divorces a mensa et thoro may be decreed for the following causes, to wit: first, cruelty of treatment; secondly, excessively |