BOOK I. CHAPTER I. OF THE HUSBAND'S INTEREST IN, AND POWER OVER THE PERSONAL PROPERTY OF HIS WIFE. At the law, wife incapable of possessing personal pro. perty." common It is a general rule of the common law of England, that a married woman cannot possess personal property, and that every thing of this nature to which she is entitled at the time of her marriage, and which accrues in her right during its continuance, is vested solely in her husband. It appears so far back as the history of English jurisprudence can be traced, that marriage conferred on the husband the dominion over the possessions of his wife. "Omnia, quæ sonalty sunt uxoris, sunt ipsius viri, non habet potestatem sui, sed vests in the vir "," is the language of one of the earliest writers known to the law, in his description of the effects produced by marriage on the property of the woman. In the contemplation of our law, the wife is scarcely considered to have a separate existence; she and her husband constitute but one person, and all the rights and duties, which are hers at the period of the marriage, become his during the continuance of that union. "Vir et uxor sunt quasi unica persona, quia caro una et sanguis unus.' 99 b It is for this reason that a man cannot, by any conveyance at the common law, limit an estate to his wife ; and that if a joint estate be to husband and wife, and to a third person, a Brac. lib. 2. c. 15. Co. Lit. 112 b. b Brac. lib. 5. 1. Co. Lit. 112 b. Wife's per husband. Husband and wifej but one person. Personalty consists of d the husband and wife would take a moiety only, and the third person would have the other moiety. This unity of the persons of husband and wife in the source from which her disability to possess personal property is derived. It is for the same reason, namely, the unity of the persons of husband and wife, that the property of both is placed under the controul and management of one of them; and the law has selected the husband, as being the more worthy of this "The husband is the head of the wife, and therefore all that she hath belongs to him." e trust. Personal property, to which a woman may be entitled at the time of her marriage, or during it, consists of three kinds, viz. chattels personal, choses in action, and chattels real, all of which the law vests in her husband; and as the extent of his right to them varies, that is, as his property in them is absolute or qualified according to the nature of the personalty, it becomes expedient to consider it under the above distribution. Chattels personal are, as Sir William Blackstone observes, things moveable, such as animals, household stuff, money, jewels, corn, garments, and every thing action and else, that can properly be put in motion, and transferred from place to place. Choses in action are things of which there is no immediate occupation, but merely a bare right to occupy, the possession whereof may be recovered by a suit or action at law. Chattels real are such as concern or savour of the realty, as terms for years of land, the next presentation to a church, estates by statute merchant, statute staple, elegit, or the like. h chattels personal, choses in chattels real. Personal chattels of wife vest absolutely in the husband. Marriage operates as an absolute gift to the husband of all the property coming under the above description of personal chattels, which were in the possession of the wife at the time of the marriage. Property of this kind is vested actually in him, for he does not require the aid of any court of law or o equity to establish his claim to it, or to invest him with the possession of it: he takes it free from any d Co. Lit. 189 a. e Finch s Law, 29. g 2 Black. Com, 396. i Co. Litt. 351 b. |