Coverture

 

Marriage includes coverture from time immemorial, or at least it did once. The States have done their best to divide, or destroy the God-centered marriage unit, and the rights that were once attached to it. If we are to discuss marriage, we have to include coverture.

Coverture is a tradition for protecting the wife; the condition of a married woman refers to women’s lawful/legal status after marriage: lawfully/legally, upon marriage, the husband, and wife were treated as one entity.[1] By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing: a “feme covert”, “covert-baron”, or under the protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord.

Coverture referred to a woman’s subordinate legal status during marriage. Before the marriage a woman could freely execute a will, enter into contracts, sue or be sued in her own name, and sell or give away her real estate or personal property as she wished. Once she married her legal existence as an individual was suspended under “marital unity,” a legal fiction in which the husband and wife were considered a single entity. The husband exercised almost exclusive power and responsibility and rarely had to consult his wife.[2] This is why you have in-laws, being of one flesh in-law; your spouse’s parents and relatives are now yours, in-law.

Marital titles of Honor: This is the origin of “Mrs.”, literally belonging to the Husband (Mr.): possessive; We tend to say Misses but it is actually “Mistress”; Mistress and Lady are titles of authority; Mistress is also used for the unknown woman who is having an affair; Miss is for a girl, young or unmarried woman, teacher, or being polite; Ms. is a new tradition for women of unknown marital status, or women who do not want their status known; Mr. is for men without some other title, like Dr., professor, master etc., Master is for male children under the age of ten, or an adult who has acquired special skills, i.e. Master Craftsman.

Since in most cultures women raised the children, while men did other things, women were not always educated and therefore, defenseless against legal matters. During coverture, the being of the wife is civilly merged, for many purposes, into that of her husband; she can, therefore, in general, make no contracts without his consent, express or implied.[3] Coverture rendered a woman unable to sue or be sued on her own behalf or to execute a will without her husband’s consent[4] and, unless some prior specific provision separating a woman’s property from her husband’s had been made, stripped a woman of control over real and personal property. To this rule there are some exceptions: she may contract, when it is for her benefit, e.g. to save her from starvation.[5] If the woman before marriage were indebted, the husband is bound afterwards to pay her debt: for he has adopted her and her circumstances together. If the wife be injured in her person or her property, she can bring no action for redress without her husband’s concurrence, and in his name, as well as her own: neither can she be sued, without making the husband a defendant, he is the head of the family.[6]

In trials of any sort, husband and wife are not allowed to be evidence for, or against, each other; if they were admitted to be witnesses for each other, they would contradict one maxim of law, “No one ought to be witness in his own cause” and if against each other, they would contradict another maxim, “No one is bound to accuse himself”. Should the husband induce her to commit crime, by threat, duress, and/or coercion, under coverture she is exempted from punishment.[7] Coverture prevents the wife from going to prison; the husband goes in her place. Thus if she is with child or they have babies/children, she can care for them. If she commits a crime of her own free will, he steps in her place, he does the punishment in her name because he loves her: as Christ died for our sin: but this extends not to treason or murder. Where the husband is dead or incapacitate in law; and, the husband being thus disabled to sue for or defend the wife, she may, under feme sole, the wife sue, defend herself, or be sued, as it would be most unreasonable if there was no remedy, or she could make no defense at all.

In case a woman is forcibly taken away, and married, she may be a witness against such her husband, in order to convict him of a felony; rape, kidnapping, fraud, theft, perjury. For in this case she can with no propriety be reckoned his wife; because a main ingredient, her consent, was wanting to the contract: and also there is another maxim of law, “that no man shall take advantage of his own wrong”; which the ravisher here would do, if by forcibly marrying a woman, he could prevent her from being a witness, who is perhaps the only witness to the facts.

The Marriage creates a condition in which a man cannot grant any thing to his wife or enter into covenant/contract with her, as it is already hers as much as his, being of one flesh: for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; and to covenant with her, would be only to covenant with himself: and therefore it is also generally true, that all compacts made between husband and wife, when single, are voided by the marriage act. A woman indeed may be attorney/council for her husband: for that implies no separation from, but is rather a representation of, her lord. Moreover, a husband may also bequeath anything to his wife by will; for that cannot take effect until the coverture is determined by his death. The husband is bound to provide his wife with necessaries by law, as much as himself. If the two are truly one, and if she contracts debts, he is obliged to pay, as her word is the same as her husband and her agreements are valid. Christ said do all acts in my name,[8] as King of the Kingdom of Heaven; therefore if man can do things in the name of his King, the wife also does things in her husband’s name or in the name of the King, of the Kingdom of Heaven, as they are as one flesh.  

“Until death do us part”: did not refer just to the physical death of one of the couple. It also included the spiritual, mental, and/or emotional[9] death. The wages of sin is death,[10] do not sin against your spouse, it is grounds for divorce. If God is love and God is life. Love and life go hand and hand. If love dies for whatever reason, it is time to part.[11] If one is married, then love exists, God exists, life remains, and that includes the life of the marriage. Although no man separated them, as loved died from other conditions, and if divorce was truly denied, indissoluble, then this could lead to “accidents”, i.e. falling down stairs, or other death scenarios, as-well-as, adultery, polygamy, or other destructive methods. Marriage should be treated as if it is indissoluble, worked on in that respect, but divorced should never be denied. Festering hate in a loveless marriage cannot be an act of God.

These are the chief legal effects of marriage during the coverture; upon which we may observe, that even the disabilities, which the wife lies under, are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit. Today, women are educated and brilliant, but this does not mean that men should quit protecting women. It is one thing for women to ask for equality in commerce or activities related to government fictions, but in a marriage, equality is based upon what the husband and wife determine it to be, not government. Government controls commerce not marriages or God-centered activities. Men have a duty to protect women at all times not just when they are married. Likewise, women should accept it or one day the call on a sinking ship would not be, “women and children to the life rafts”; men have given up their lives for women to live, no judgments, no condemnation, no requirements, no proof or validation, they do for loved ones and strangers. Some people believe the call “women and children to the life rafts” means that women and children are equal. This is a selfish degrading of women concept. No Man, Women, or child, should ever entertain this concept; Woman is equal to Man; Men and Women have different roles in life and activities.

Coverture was disassembled in the United States through legislation at the state level beginning in Mississippi in 1839 and continuing into the 1880s. The legal status of married women was a major issue in the struggle for woman suffrage. As government gets involved, they separate husbands and wives, as the people demanded, through ignorance. When we examine the voting laws, if the two are truly one flesh, then how can one vote twice? Thus, the State divides that which God has joined as one. The reason for the destruction of coverture is not just separating man and woman, but men and women from God.

The government has no authority over God, thus in the middle ages, governments wanted a verbal statement from people to renounce their God or die. Today, we do not require a verbal statement, as your actions speak louder then words ever could. You renounce God by engaging in Godless centered activities, such as denying coverture, embracing the marriage license, believing in a false premise of “Race”, and having someone in authority over you that is not God; or embracing his commandments,[12] or traditions.

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[1] Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh; Matthew 18:18 Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

[2] Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

[3] Maxims of Law: Com. Dig. Baron and Feme, W; Pleader, 2 A 1; 1 Ch. Pl. 19, 45; Litt. s. 28; Chit. Contr. 39; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 276

[4] Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

[5] Maxims of Law: Chit. Contr. 40.

[6] Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

[7] Maxims of Law: 1 Ha1e, P. C. 516; 1 Russ. Cr. 16.

[8] Colossians 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

[9] Mark 12: 28-31 What commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

[10]  Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[11] 1Corentians 7:39 A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

[12] Jeremiah 7:23 Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you; Ezekiel 11:20 they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; 2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.