Silk Sails by Calvin Evans

property ownership, and most property was vested in the name of men. Lack of power and responsibility combined with unjustified prejudices about women as inferior and incompetent, as ornaments for men’s pleasure and convenience, to create practices of widespread discrimination against women. Marriage became, in the thinking of many men, a means of licensed control over women because the woman’s identity was absorbed into their own. This false view of marriage has been rightly viewed as a form of bondage.
    The English Common Law gave a husband almost unlimited rights over property belonging to his wife, which represented, in fact, an erosion of certain rights and freedoms that women in Europe had held in the pre-industrial period; women gradually became more associated with household, domestic, social and family matters in later periods. And all during the reign of a British queen!
    Newfoundland became an official colony of Great Britain in 1824, and by 1837 had officially adopted English criminal law, which remained in effect until 1949 when Newfoundland became a province of Canada. English criminal law actually had the effect of curtailing more liberal practices with respect to women’s ownership of property and management of estates, which had prevailed in the colony prior to this period.
Advent of Married Women’s Property Acts
    While the rights of widows and single women were approximately the same as men, except for civic rights, the rights of married women were severely curtailed in law. The battles for reform were being fought in England, both by women and by men who supportedthem. Two of the most famous proponents of reform were Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Stuart Mill. Few of the supporters of reform were happy with the limited success achieved in the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870, and the battle continued until a more liberal act was passed in England in 1882, the “Magna Carta” for women. A few quotes from
Registration of British Ships
published in 1896 are appropriate here: “As regards married women, a reference to the Married Women’s Property Act, 1882…will show under what conditions they are in this country capable of holding ships…the power of a married woman to transfer shares is not absolute. Since the Married Women’s Property Acts have been passed, the titles of married women to shares in shipping have frequently been recorded… A registered mortgagee has an absolute power of sale subject to the conditions imposed by Section 35.”
    In 1834, Newfoundland had passed the Real Chattels Act, which declared all landed property to be “Chattels Real” and gave responsibility for settling affairs to an appointed executor or administrator, subject to the direction of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland. Historiographers are still trying to determine the full impact of this unique piece of legislation. However, it is worthy of note that following the passing of this Act, women were appointed as executors and administrators (though they are usually called executrixes or administratrixes) of estates, and that this procedure usually passed quickly through the Supreme Court. From the ship registers of all the Atlantic provinces, it is clear that the Supreme Court, which handled estate settlements after death, treated them in a straightforward manner and with reasonable speed. Probate was often granted within a month or two of the owner’s death. In cases where the owner left a will with a designated executor (often the owner’s wife and/or brother or business associate), the same time-frame is observed. In cases where there was no will, the Supreme Court granted “Letters of Administration,” usually to the wife, and she either sold the ship quickly or continued with the family business, often becoming the business head until one of her sons was old enough to assume responsibility.
    In 1876, Newfoundland passed the Married