Poking around on the web after that session led me to this Family Search page explaining some of the nuances of the colonial court system.
Low on that page is a list of what it meant to be “of legal age” under English law, according to Giles Jacob’s A New Law-Dictionary, first published in 1729 and reprinted throughout the century. Here’s a P.D.F. download of the first edition, which I double-checked for this information:
Man:A person came of age at the end of the day preceding the date of their birth.
12: “take the Oath of Allegiance to the King.”
14: “Age of Discretion” so that he can “consent to Marriage, and chuse his Guardian.”
21: “may alien his Lands, Goods and Chattels.”
21: “may be a Member of Parliament.”
24: “can be ordained a Priest.”
30: can “be a Bishop.”
Woman:
09: “is dowable”—able to have/receive a dower.
12: “may consent to Marriage.”
14: “she is at Years of Discretion, and may chuse a Guardian.”
21: “may alienate her Lands, &c.”
Person:
“Persons under the Age of Fourteen, are not generally punishable for Crimes; But if they do any Trespass, they must answer for the Damage.”
“Fourteen is the Age by Law to be a Witness,” and “in some Cases a Person of nine Years of Age has been allow’d to give Evidence.”
14: “may dispose of Goods and Personal Estate by Will; tho not of Lands ’till the Age of Twenty-one.”
“A Person under Twenty-one, may contract for Necessaries suitable to his Quality, and it shall bind him.”
“One under Age may be Executor of a Will.”
21: “the full Age of Man or Woman; which enables them to contract and manage for themselves, in Respect to their Estates, until which Time they cannot act with Security to those as deal with them; for their Acts are in most Cases either void, or voidable.”
“A Person under the Age of Twenty-one may make a Purchase; but at his full Age may agree or disagree to it.”
Age Prier is “when an Action being brought against a Person under Age for Lands which he hath by Descent,” a court may stay the action until the person comes of age.
I first started to wonder about this question when I read the accounts of adolescents like Edward Garrick and even Henry Knox about the Boston Massacre. They weren’t yet of age to carry on business, but they were “of legal age,” as the depositions and court record said, to give testimony.
Another important "coming of age", at least for males, was at age 16. In New England, that was when boys/young men were required to serve in the militia.
ReplyDeleteI was recently looking at census data for Massachusetts in the 18th century. If a census did any data breakdown by age, it was always at age 16.
Massachusetts conducted a census of enslaved persons in 1754. Only "Negro Slaves, both Males and Females, sixteen years and upward" were counted. There was no attempt to count enslaved children.
The 1765 Provincial census of Massachusetts enumerated people in the following categories:
- whites under 16 years [male/female]
- whites above 16 years [male/female]
- Negro's and Molattos [male/female]
- Indians [male/female]
- French Neutrals under 16 years [male/female]
- French Neutrals above 16 years [male/female]
[Note that the tallies of Negroes and Indians weren't broken down by age; only the whites and French Neutrals were. The "French Neutrals" category referred to exiles and refugees from formerly French Acadie, which had recently become the British colony of Nova Scotia.]
In 1777 the Province conducted a special census of white "males 16 & upward".
The first Federal census, in 1790, tallied the following categories:
- Free white males of 16 years and upwards
- Free white males under 16 years
- Free white females
- All other free persons [i.e., nonwhites]
- Slaves
[Note that only white males were enumerated by age, not females, nonwhite persons, or slaves.]
I wonder what British laws said about militia participation. The omission of the age of militia requirement in the British law dictionary suggests it wasn’t as fixed as it was in New England, but perhaps that’s assuming too much.
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