Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance General Principles Legal Age of Adulthood Marriage

Property Ownership Inheritance Taxation Courts Sources & Where to Verify

Legal Ages at a Glance

Legal milestone	Age	Notes
Full legal majority	21	Common-law rule for both sexes, received in 1829; unchanged through this period
Marriage without parental consent	21	A parent or guardian consented for either party under 21, both sexes
Age to marry	14 male / 12 female	The common-law ages, received in 1829 and unchanged through this period
Common-law marriage	14 male / 12 female	Valid throughout on a present agreement to be husband and wife followed by living together, with no licence or ceremony; ended only for marriages entered after 1 January 1968
Choosing one's own guardian	no fixed age	The county judge chose; a ward could ask for a particular person, but the decision was the judge's
Guardianship ends	21	Guardian named by the father by deed or will, or appointed by the county judge; ran to the ward's majority
Making a will	21, then 18 from 1933	A married woman could make a will while still a minor
Witnessing a will	no fixed age	Three witnesses required to at least 1881, two from 1906; competency controlled, and a beneficiary-witness lost the gift
Serving as executor or administrator	21	A minor named executor got administration with the will annexed until majority
Apprenticeship ends	21 male / 16 or 18 female	A girl bound out by the court as a poor orphan served to 16, one bound out by a parent or guardian to 18; uniformly 18 by 1906. A child of 16 or over signed the indenture in assent
Testifying in court	no fixed age	Competency controlled
Jury service	21	Free white males 21 to 50 from 1828, freeholders only for cases over title to land; registered voters from 1868; male citizens over 21 with no land requirement from 1893; women by voluntary registration from 1949
Criminal responsibility, 1828 to 1868	9	No child under 9 could be convicted; from 9 to 14 only on proof the child knew right from wrong; 14 and over answered as an adult
Criminal responsibility, after 1868	7	No child under 7 could be convicted; from 7 to 14 only on proof of understanding; 14 and over answered as an adult
Poll tax before 1865	15 to 50 enslaved / 21 to 60 free men of colour	White men paid no poll tax; the tax on an enslaved person was charged to the owner, so his name is the one on the roll
Poll tax after 1865	21 to 65, then 21 to 55 by 1881	A single tax on all men alike, authorized in 1868, later with an exemption for loss of a limb; payment became a prerequisite to voting in 1889

General Principles

Spanish civil law to 1821

For the first part of the period this guide covers, the governing law in Florida was Spanish civil law — a legal system descended from Roman law and the codes of Spain, built on written codes rather than on the decisions of judges. It governed under Spain to 1763, gave way to English law during the British administration of East and West Florida from 1763 to 1783, and returned with Spain from 1783 to 1821. This matters to researchers chiefly for land. Titles that began as Spanish or British royal grants before 1821 survived the change of sovereignty: after Spain ceded Florida in the treaty ratified in 1821, the United States set up commissions and courts to confirm those private grants, and Florida courts went on recognizing Spanish-era titles for decades. Land tracing to a Spanish or British grant is documented in federal and territorial confirmation papers rather than in ordinary county deeds.

English common law from 1829

English common law arrived by a single act. On 6 November 1829 the territorial Legislative Council declared the common and statute law of England, of a general nature, down to 4 July 1776 to be in force in Florida, so far as it was consistent with the United States Constitution, federal law, and Florida's own acts.¹ That declaration was carried forward through every later compilation. From 1829 the state was a common-law jurisdiction: husband and wife held property separately under common-law rules, later modified by statute, and the community-property system of the Spanish period did not survive. A few Florida statutes predate the reception act, the territory having passed its own wills and descent acts in 1828 and 1829; where no statute spoke, the common law governed. Reading Florida records after 1829, take the common-law rule as the rule unless a Florida statute had changed it.

Period	Governing law
To 1763	Spanish civil law
1763 – 1783	British rule in East and West Florida; English law
1783 – 1821	Spanish civil law again
1821 – 1829	United States territorial government; territorial acts, with pre-1821 land titles preserved
From 6 November 1829	English common and statute law of a general nature to 4 July 1776, as modified by Florida statute

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one

Full legal majority was 21, for men and women alike. The age came in with the common law in 1829 and held through this period. A person below 21 was an infant, or minor, and their contracts, suits, and deeds were voidable — able to be undone — on reaching majority or shortly after. A minor who signed a deed could disaffirm it, meaning cancel it, on turning 21. That is why land bought from a young grantor sometimes produced a second, confirming deed a few years later: the confirming deed is a useful sign that the grantor was under age at the first sale.

One statutory exception arrived in 1917. The disability of non-age was removed from every male minor who was married, had been married, or should afterwards marry, so such a man under 21 could manage his own estate, contract, sue, and do anything he could have done at twenty-one; the section following carried the rule to divorced persons.²

Apprenticeship

Minors were bound out as apprentices, orphaned and poor children especially. An apprenticeship began with an indenture approved by the county judge, binding the child to a master to learn a trade and the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and entitling the child to a new suit of clothes, shoes, and a blanket at the end of the term.³ The term ran to 21 for a boy. For a girl it turned on who bound her out: to 16 where the county court bound out a poor orphan who had no estate for her support, and to 18 where a parent or guardian bound out the child. Both figures stood together in the law in force in 1881; by the code of 1906 the term was 21 for a boy and 18 for a girl in every case.⁴ A parent or guardian could bind out a minor with the county judge's approval, and a child of 16 or over signed the indenture in assent.⁵ The court could also bind out poor orphans who had no estate for their support — the county court in the territorial period, the county judge later — along with children whose fathers had died insolvent and abandoned or pauper children under 16, and it heard apprentices' complaints of ill-treatment, insufficient food or clothing, or want of instruction.⁶ An indenture names the child, the master, and the term, and often the parents — a valuable record for children who otherwise leave little trace.

Marriage

Two routes to a valid marriage

Two systems of marriage ran side by side in Florida for the whole of this period. The first was the licensed and solemnized marriage, and the office that issued the license changed over time. Under the territorial act, the license came from the clerk of the county court of the county where the woman usually resided, who took a two-hundred-dollar bond that there was no lawful cause to obstruct the marriage; an ordained minister, or a justice of the peace where there were too few ministers, performed the ceremony, and the certificate went back to the clerk within three months to be entered in a book kept for that purpose.⁷ Later the license issued from the county judge of the woman's county on a two-dollar fee, which was the charge by 1881, and ordained ministers, judicial officers, and notaries public could solemnize.⁸ Either way the licensing office kept a bound record of every license issued and entered the officiant's return on it, giving the date and the person who performed the marriage. That bound record is the core Florida marriage record, and the application behind it gives the parties' names, ages, race, birthplaces, occupations, and any previous marriage.

The second was common-law marriage, which Florida recognized throughout. A valid common-law marriage required three things as the Florida courts stated them: legal capacity to contract marriage, a mutual agreement of the parties to be husband and wife from that moment rather than a promise for the future, and consummation of the agreement by living together.⁹ A couple so married were married in law, and the courts held the license and solemnization statutes to be directory — instructions to the officials rather than conditions of the marriage — so the marriage stood although the licensing and record-keeping had not been followed.¹⁰ The abolishing statute reached only marriages entered after 1 January 1968 and left the earlier ones intact, so every common-law marriage inside this guide's period was and remains valid.¹¹

For a researcher this means a couple with no marriage license may still have been married, and their children legitimate. A common-law marriage surfaces later, in a probate file, a widow's pension application, or a suit over property, where witnesses testified to the couple's agreement and their reputation as married. Where a ceremony had taken place but no certificate was ever filed, the marriage could be proved by the sworn affidavit of two witnesses who saw it, filed with the county judge.¹²

Route	What it required	The record it leaves
Licensed and solemnized	A license from the woman's county — from the clerk of the county court on a two-hundred-dollar bond in the territorial period, later from the county judge on a two-dollar fee — and a ceremony by an authorized officiant	The bound license record, with the officiant's return entered on it
Common law	Capacity to marry, a present mutual agreement to be husband and wife, and consummation by living together	No record at the time; proved later by witnesses in a probate file, pension claim, or property suit

Age and parental consent

The age of capacity to marry came in with the common law: 14 for a male and 12 for a female. At or above those ages the marriage was valid. The license law added a separate requirement: a parent's or guardian's consent whenever either party, of either sex, was under 21. The territorial act took that consent verbally at the clerk's office, or on the oath of one credible witness; the later statute required satisfactory evidence of it before the county judge issued the license, and excepted a minor who had been married before.¹³ A consent affidavit filed with a marriage license is therefore proof that the bride or groom was under 21. Because the license statute was directory, a minor's marriage performed without a parent's consent was still a valid marriage; the consent rule bound the county judge and the officiant.

Enslaved people and people of color

An enslaved person had no legal capacity to enter a contract, and so could not contract a legal marriage in Florida before emancipation. Enslaved couples married by agreement or by ceremony within their own communities, and the law gave those unions no civil effect. After emancipation the legislature changed course: by an act of 11 January 1866 all the laws regulating marriage between white persons were made to apply to the colored population of the state, so that from that date the marriages of formerly enslaved people were governed and recognized by the ordinary law.¹⁴ An African American marriage in Florida enters the ordinary county record from 1866.

Marriage across racial lines was barred early and stayed barred through this period. A territorial act of 23 January 1832, amending the marriage license act, made it unlawful for a white person to intermarry with any person the statute described as a negro, mulatto, quarteroon, or other coloured person, declared any such marriage utterly void, and provided that the children of such a marriage were regarded as illegitimate and could receive no estate real, personal, or mixed by inheritance.¹⁵ A clerk of court who knowingly issued a license for such a marriage forfeited one thousand dollars, and a minister, justice of the peace, or judge who knowingly performed the ceremony was penalized as well.¹⁶ From 1881 the parties themselves were liable to punishment: either or both could be imprisoned in the state prison for up to ten years, or fined up to one thousand dollars.¹⁷ A later provision drew the line by blood, treating as a negro any person with one-eighth or more negro ancestry.¹⁸ A couple in this position married out of state where they could, and Florida courts would in some circumstances recognize such a marriage as to property if it was valid where the couple actually lived and married.¹⁵

Property Ownership

Men and children

A free man of legal age could own, buy, and sell land freely. A minor could own land by gift, inheritance, or purchase, and a guardian managed it under the county judge's supervision; a sale of a minor's land needed a court order. Land belonging to children after a father's death therefore appears in guardianship files and in petitions to the county judge for leave to sell.

Married women before 1943

Under the common law received in 1829 a married woman was a feme covert — a wife under coverture, the legal condition in which her identity merged into her husband's. She could not contract, and her husband controlled her property. Florida separated ownership from her husband early: the Constitution of 1868 declared all property of the wife, owned before marriage or acquired afterward by gift, devise (a gift of land by will), descent, or purchase, to be her separate property, not liable for her husband's debts, and the Constitution of 1885 continued it.¹⁹

Separate ownership left control with her husband. For decades afterward a married woman conveyed or mortgaged her own land only where her husband joined in the deed and she was examined privately. That private examination — the privy examination — is a distinctive Florida record, and it names her. The statute required her to acknowledge the sale, conveyance, mortgage, or relinquishment of dower before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments, separately and apart from her husband, that she executed it freely and voluntarily and without compulsion, constraint, apprehension, or fear of or from her husband, and the officer's certificate had to recite all of it.²⁰ The courts held the examination indispensable to the validity of a wife's conveyance and the officer's certificate conclusive short of fraud, which her own testimony alone could not establish.²¹ The separate acknowledgment ended with the legislation of 1943, and the Florida Supreme Court confirmed that after the 1943 act a married woman's separate acknowledgment was no longer part of the due execution of her deeds, mortgages, and relinquishments of dower.²² The Married Women's Emancipation Act, effective the same year, let a married woman deal with her separate property, contract, sue, and convey exactly as if she were single.²³ Deeds made by married women before 1943 that lacked the separate acknowledgment were validated afterward by a curative statute, which is a measure of how often the requirement was missed.²⁴

Free dealers

From 1879 a married woman could be licensed as a free dealer — authorized to take charge of and manage her own estate and property and to deal in it in every respect as though she were single. She petitioned the circuit court in chancery for the circuit where she lived, gave notice once a week for four successive weeks in a newspaper, and took her licence on the court's order.²⁵ The proceeding leaves a short run of records that name and date her: the chancery petition, the published notice, and the licence entered by the court. Where a married woman turns up in the deed books selling or mortgaging land in her own name without her husband joining, a free-dealer licence is the thing to look for.

When a wife signed her husband's deed

Two separate rules put a wife's signature on her husband's deeds, and they are worth keeping apart. The first is dower, the widow's interest in her late husband's land discussed under Inheritance below. While the husband lived his wife held an inchoate dower interest — one that had not yet vested, because it would take effect only if she outlived him — and a buyer wanted her signature on the husband's deed to release it. The second is homestead. From the Constitution of 1868 the family homestead, up to 160 acres outside a town or a half-acre within one plus $1,000 in personal property, was exempt from forced sale for debt, and it could be sold, mortgaged, or given away only with the joinder, meaning the joint signature, of husband and wife.²⁶ The Constitution of 1885 kept the joinder rule, and the Florida courts enforced it strictly, treating a conveyance of homestead without proper joinder as void.²⁷

Period	Why the wife's signature was on the husband's deed
1829–1868	To release dower in the husband's land
1868–1885	To release dower, and to convey the family homestead
1885–1950	To release dower, and to convey or mortgage the homestead

Witnessing a deed

A deed granting an estate of freehold, or a term of more than two years, was signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of at least two subscribing witnesses; a conveyance made otherwise passed nothing. The rule came in with the territorial act of 15 November 1828 and stood unchanged through the code of 1906.²⁸ The statute set no age for those witnesses, so competency governed, and in practice the witness was an adult, since a witness might later have to prove the deed in court. A wife released her dower in the same way from the territorial period onward: by making herself a party to her husband's conveyance, or by a separate relinquishment under her hand and seal executed before two witnesses, and in no other way.²⁹

Enslaved people and free people of color

An enslaved person owned nothing in law and inherited nothing; whatever an enslaved person held belonged to the enslaver. Free people of color held property under the ordinary law: the digest of the general statutes in force in 1847 sets down no rule limiting what a free person of color could own. The disabilities it does carry fall elsewhere — on entering and moving about the state, on testimony, and on the consequences of a conviction, since a free negro or mulatto convicted of a crime and unable to pay the fine and costs had his services sold at public outcry by the sheriff to whoever would take him for the shortest term.³⁰ A sheriff's sale of services under that provision is a record, and it names the person sold. Read the particular acts of the territorial and antebellum sessions for restrictions the general digest does not gather up. The Constitution of 1868 secured property rights regardless of race, and from that point the racial bars on owning and inheriting property were gone.

Inheritance

Two tracks: land and personal property

Where a person died intestate — without a will — Florida divided the estate by statute, and the estate ran in two tracks, one for land and one for personal property, with the widow's interest turning on how many children there were.

Land descended to the children. Land held by a person who died intestate passed in parcenary, meaning to co-heirs holding it together, to the children and their descendants — and, by a change made after 1881, to the husband alongside the children where the person who died was a married woman and her husband survived her. Where there were no children, all the property, real and personal, went to the surviving spouse; where there was no spouse either, it passed to the parents, then to brothers and sisters, and outward through the collateral kindred.³¹ The widow's protected interest in the land was dower.

Dower in land was a life estate: the use of one-third of her husband's land for her lifetime, without ownership of it.³² The land itself descended to the heirs at the husband's death subject to the widow's thirds, and came to them free of dower when she died. In the personal estate her dower share was larger and was outright ownership, free of the husband's debts and preferred over other claims.³³

What the widow took

Property	Situation	Her share
Land (dower)	Any	A life estate in one-third — use for her lifetime, then to the heirs
Personal property (dower)	No children, or only one child	One-half, outright
Personal property (dower)	More than one child	One-third, outright
Land and personal property (child's part, by election)	Children surviving	A child's share, outright — counted as one of the children
The whole estate	Husband intestate, no children	All of it, unless she elected dower within one year

The widow's election

A widow entitled to dower could choose, within twelve months after the will was proved or letters of administration were granted — the county judge's written authority to an administrator to settle an estate — to take a child's part instead.³⁴ The choice mattered. Dower gave her a life estate in the land, which returned to her husband's estate at her death; a child's part gave her a fee-simple share of the land, meaning outright ownership she could sell or leave by will, and absolute ownership of her share of the personal property. A widow with three children who elected a child's part took one-fourth outright; a widow who took dower held a life interest in one-third. Before emancipation the personal property she took absolutely included enslaved people by name, so an antebellum widow's allotment can identify enslaved individuals and place them with a particular household. Her election was filed with the county judge, and it is a dated, signed document that names her and fixes the family. Where the husband died intestate leaving no children, she took the whole estate outright unless she filed a written election to take dower within one year of his death.³⁵ Beyond her share she kept the dwelling house until her dower was assigned, and kept her wearing apparel and enough household goods, provisions, and farming utensils for the family's maintenance, set apart by the appraisers.³⁶

The Probate Act of 1933 closed this period. It revised and consolidated the whole law of wills, probate, descent and distribution, dower, and the administration of estates, and repealed the sections of the 1920 compilation cited throughout this section.³⁷ It took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on 1 October 1933 and governs the estates of people dying after that moment; the estate of anyone who died before it is administered under the law in force at the death.³⁸ So for a Florida ancestor who died at any point up to 30 September 1933, the rules set out above are the rules that governed the estate.

Minors and guardians

A minor's inheritance was handled through guardianship. Where a child inherited land or money, the county judge's court appointed a guardian to hold and manage it, and the guardian accounted to the court and made a final settlement when the ward came of age. Those guardianship accounts and final settlements, filed as the ward turned 21, are among the most useful Florida records for fixing a child's age and parentage. A father could name a guardian for his children by deed or by will; where he had not, the county judge appointed one where it appeared necessary and proper. The choice belonged to the judge throughout: the guardian was the court's officer, and the ward had no right to any particular person, so Florida set no age at which a minor selected his or her own guardian.³⁹ A mother's attempt to name a guardian by will was a nullity. The county judge took security from every guardian of a minor's estate, required inventories and annual accounts, and authorized any sale of the minor's land — so a guardian was appointed chiefly because a minor owned property. The word orphan in Florida records ordinarily means a child whose father had died, leaving the child in need of a property guardian.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage inherited from and through the mother as though lawfully born — a rule Florida carried from its first descent act of 1829 — and the courts read it to reach the mother herself rather than her wider kindred.⁴⁰ Inheritance on the father's side turned on legitimation, and the ordinary route was the later marriage of the parents: where the mother and the reputed father intermarried at any time after the birth, the child was in all respects deemed legitimate, and any bastardy bond — the security a putative father gave the county to support the child — was discharged.⁴¹ A parents' marriage that post-dates a child's birth is therefore the record to look for. Cutting the other way, the children of a marriage forbidden across racial lines were declared illegitimate and barred from inheriting, as noted under Marriage above.¹⁵

Children of enslaved couples

Where a couple of African descent had lived together and recognized each other as husband and wife before 1 January 1866, the law declared them to have been lawfully married and their children legitimate, and made those children heirs of both parents and of their blood relatives in every line of descent.⁴² The courts drew a firm limit at freedom. Children of a slave union that had ended before emancipation, or that the parents never ratified or recognized as a marriage once they were free, took no inheritable blood and were treated as neither legitimate nor illegitimate under the descent statutes.⁴³ For a formerly enslaved family the decisive question is whether the couple's relationship carried into freedom; where it did, the children inherited from both parents.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

The person making a will, the testator, had to be of legal age and of sound mind. The age was 21 for real and personal property alike, with no split by kind of property and none by sex, a rule tracing to the territorial wills act of 20 November 1828 and holding for more than a century. The Probate Act lowered it to 18 from 1 October 1933, for every person "male or female, married or single."⁴⁴⁴⁵ One exception ran in a married woman's favor: she could dispose of her property by will as if she were single, although still a minor.⁴⁶ A will of real estate was signed by the testator, or by another in the testator's presence and at his direction, and attested in the testator's presence by witnesses; a will made otherwise was void. The number of witnesses changed during the period. From the act of 1832 a will of land required three or more witnesses, and the requirement stands unchanged in the digests of the laws in force in 1847, in 1872, and in 1881.⁴⁷ By the code of 1906 two were enough.⁴⁸ An antebellum or Reconstruction-era Florida will of land attested by only two witnesses was void, which is worth knowing before treating one as proof. Before emancipation the same section let a testator dispose of the enslaved people he held at his death, so an antebellum will can name them. Witnesses were held to competency rather than to an age: any person who understood what he or she was attesting could witness, and an executor was a competent witness unless he was himself a legatee or devisee, and a witness who was also a beneficiary lost the gift, which kept the witness disinterested. Under the Probate Act a devise or bequest to a subscribing witness is void unless at least two other disinterested subscribing witnesses signed.⁴⁴⁴⁹ A nuncupative will — an oral will spoken in the testator's last sickness before witnesses — passed personal property, and a formal witnessed writing was required to pass land or, before emancipation, slaves.⁵⁰

The age to serve as executor or administrator was 21. Where a will named a minor as executor, the court granted administration with the will annexed — that is, appointed someone else to carry out the will — to the next of kin or another suitable person until the minor came of age, at which point he was admitted to act.⁵¹ A married woman could serve as administratrix where her husband filed his written consent with the county judge.⁵²

Taxation

What was taxed

The territorial tax fell on land by the acre and by grade rather than by value: half a cent an acre for first rate land, a quarter of a cent for second, an eighth of a cent for third. Town lots were taxed at five cents on every hundred dollars of value, leaving the buildings on them out of account. On top of that came trade and licence taxes — five cents on every hundred dollars of merchandise sold in the year, five dollars on an innkeeper or tavern keeper, two dollars on a retailer of spirits by less than the half gallon, fifty dollars on a billiard table, a dollar on a four-wheeled pleasure carriage — and the property of religious societies and schools, land still held by the United States, and land whose title was in dispute under the Spanish treaty were exempt.⁵³ The county court appointed an assessor and a collector each March, and the assessment spoke as of the first of February.

Later the state taxed real and personal property by value, which produced the county tax rolls. For genealogists those rolls work almost like a yearly census: a man appears when he came of age or acquired taxable property, and drops off at death or departure. The assessor made his round between the first of March and the first of July, and was required to inspect land before valuing it unless he already knew what it was worth. Tax rolls from 1829 to 1881 for many counties were gathered into the State Archives.

Who counted as a poll

The answer changes at emancipation, and it is worth having straight, because the early head taxes fell on the people a researcher is often hardest pressed to document. Under the territorial act a white man paid no tax on his own head. The capitation ran instead on every enslaved person over the age of fifteen and under fifty, at twenty-five cents, and on every free man of colour over twenty-one and under sixty, at fifty cents — twice the rate.⁵³ So a territorial or antebellum tax roll counts enslaved people by name of owner and by age bracket, and enters free men of colour by their own names. For an African American family those rolls are often the earliest surviving list on which an ancestor appears at all.

Emancipation ended the first of those taxes by ending the status it rested on. The Constitution of 1868 then replaced the old scheme with a single capitation on all men alike, and capped it: the legislature could levy a special capitation tax, but not above one dollar a year for state, county, and municipal purposes together.⁵⁴ What the legislature did with the head tax in the three years between emancipation and that constitution is not shown by any compilation used here, none of which was digesting the law of those years; read the revenue acts in the session laws of 1865 and 1866 to fill the gap.

The poll tax after 1868

The upper age moved during this period. By the law in force in 1872 the poll tax fell on each male person over twenty-one and under sixty-five, divided equally between the state and the county; by 1881 the upper limit had come down to fifty-five.⁵⁵ The rule then settled into the form it kept for the rest of this period: one dollar a year on each male over 21 and under 55 who had lived in the state more than a year, with an exemption for bodily infirmity, in the words of the statute for such as have lost a limb, paid into the county school fund and collected when property taxes were collected.⁵⁶ A man became taxable as a poll at 21 and ceased to be one at 55, and could drop off the poll list earlier for infirmity.

The Constitution of 1885 allowed the legislature to require payment of the poll tax as a condition of voting, and the legislature did so in 1889. Under that act the tax collector furnished the supervisor of registration, thirty days before any general, special, or municipal election, a list of everyone who had paid his capitation tax for the two preceding years; the supervisor noted those names on the registration books, and only men so noted could vote. A man whose name was missing had to produce his receipts, obtained at least thirty days before the election, at the polls.⁵⁷ By the turn of the century the requirement had settled into the form the code of 1906 carries: poll taxes for the two preceding years paid before the second Saturday of the month before the election, with exemptions for those under age, those over fifty-five, and those who had lost a limb in battle.⁵⁸

The same act ordered the receipts printed in book form with duplicates retained, each stating the payer's name and the year paid.⁵⁷ That is why poll-tax receipts and annotated registration lists survive, and why they can place a man in a county in a given year.

Courts

Jury service

In the territorial period the jury was drawn from the free white male inhabitants above 21 and under 50, and for the trial of any cause affecting title to real estate the jury was composed of freeholders — men who owned land outright.⁵⁹ From Reconstruction the qualification was tied to the vote: grand and petit jurors were taken from the registered voters of the county, and any qualified elector was liable to be drawn, with those over sixty-five excused.⁶⁰ Because the Constitution of 1868 extended the vote to men of all races, drawing the jury from the registered voters carried eligibility for jury service with it. By the end of the century the qualification had changed again. Grand and petit jurors were then taken from the male persons above 21 who had lived in the state a year and in their county six months and were citizens of Florida, and a person convicted of an infamous crime — bribery, forgery, perjury, larceny, and the like — was disqualified unless his civil rights had been restored.⁶¹ Under that later statute any qualified man could serve whether or not he owned land, and the courts confirmed that a juror needed no freehold or householder qualification.⁶² On its face the jury statute reached all races, and the Florida Supreme Court said so; Black men were legally eligible for jury service from 1868, though in practice they were widely excluded.⁶³

Women as jurors

The jury statute drew jurors from male persons, and the Florida Supreme Court confirmed in 1939 that women were outside it.⁶⁴ In 1949 the legislature admitted women to jury service on their own initiative: a woman served where she registered in advance to do so, and juries stayed overwhelmingly male.⁶⁵ For nearly the whole of the period covered here, a Florida jury was a body of men.

Criminal responsibility

Florida fixed the age of criminal responsibility by statute a year before it received the common law. The territorial crimes act of 1828 provided that no child under the age of nine could be found guilty of any crime, and that a person was taken to be of sound mind who had reached fourteen, or who was below fourteen and knew the distinction between good and evil.⁶⁶ So under that act a child under 9 could not be convicted, a child from 9 to 14 could be convicted on proof that he or she understood right from wrong, and from 14 a person answered as an adult.

That statutory rule did not last the whole period. It is absent from the digests of the laws in force in 1872 and 1881 and from the code of 1906, so it went out with the general criminal act of 1868, leaving the common law received in 1829 to supply the rule: no child under 7 capable of crime, a child from 7 to 14 presumed incapable until the presumption was met by proof of understanding, and full responsibility from 14.⁶⁷ The general criminal act of 1868 is what replaced the crimes act of 1828, and it carries no provision on capacity.⁶⁸ One related rule was settled by statute in 1901: the common-law presumption that a boy under fourteen could not commit rape was abolished, and capability was left to the jury.⁶⁹ Florida established no general statewide juvenile court in these years, and a comprehensive juvenile court act for the state was still being proposed in 1951.⁷⁰ A child of 14 could therefore be tried and convicted as an adult, and a child's case stayed in the ordinary criminal courts and their records.

Witnesses

Testimony was governed by competency rather than by age: a witness of any age could testify if the witness understood the duty to tell the truth and could relate what he or she had seen. Race restricted testimony for much of the period. Under territorial and antebellum law the statute set the line by the race of the parties, not by which side the witness helped. A negro or mulatto, enslaved or free, was a good witness in a State prosecution for or against negroes or mulattoes, and in a civil case where free negroes or mulattoes were the only parties, and in no other case whatever.⁷¹ So their evidence was unavailable in any matter with a white party on either side. Before an enslaved witness was examined the court had to charge him in a set form, warning that false testimony would be punished by thirty-nine lashes and an hour with his ears nailed to a post.⁷² The Constitution of 1868 guaranteed equal civil rights, and from then people of color were competent witnesses on the same terms as white witnesses. A researcher reading an antebellum court file will find Black testimony only in the cases where it was admissible; after 1868 the barrier was gone.

(Guide compiled by Jeniann Nielsen with AI assistance from Claude Opus 4.8 and Gemini Pro 3.1. Check primary sources as needed.)

Sources & Where to Verify

Every rule above is tagged with the law it rests on. The lists below show where to read those laws in full, and the reference works consulted, so anything here can be checked against the original sources.

Constitutions

• Florida Constitution of 1838, 1865, 1868, and 1885. Florida Historical Legal Documents. Digital images. University of Florida Digital Collections. https://ufdc.ufl.edu/law (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Constitution of 1868. Art. IV, § 26 (wife's separate property); art. IX, § 1 (homestead exemption and joint consent to convey). Digital images. Florida State University College of Law Research Center. https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/CRC/CRC-1998/conhist/1868con.html (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Constitution of 1885. Art. VI, § 8 (poll tax as a voting prerequisite); art. X (homestead); art. XI, § 1 (married woman's separate property). Digital images. Florida State University College of Law Research Center. https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/CRC/CRC-1998/conhist/1885con.html (accessed 25 July 2026).

Codes and Compilations

• Bush, Allen H., comp. A Digest of the Statute Law of Florida, of a General and Public Character, in Force up to the First Day of January, 1872. Tallahassee, Fla.: Charles H. Walton, State Printer, 1872. Digested under an act of the Assembly approved 6 August 1868. The Reconstruction-era compilation, standing between Thompson and McClellan. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/adigeststatutel00florgoog; also Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/WGMSAAAAYAAJ (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Statutes. The current code, each section printed with the history line running back through the earlier compilations: § 2.01 (common law of England in force), §§ 693.03 and 694.04 (married women's conveyances), § 708.08 (Married Women's Emancipation Act), § 741.211 (common-law marriage), § 40.01 (jurors). The Florida Senate. https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2011/2.01 (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Statutes, 1955–1996. Scanned images of the biennial statutes. The 1941 volumes, which adopted the 1940 revision, are not in this run; volume III of 1941, holding the British statutes in force in Florida and Whitfield's notes, is separately posted. Digital images. Florida State University College of Law Research Center. https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/FLStatutes/index.html (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Liddon, B. S., T. F. West, and J. C. B. Koonce, comps. The General Statutes of the State of Florida. St. Augustine, Fla.: The Record Company, 1906. Prepared under an act approved 3 June 1903. The revision in force at the turn of the century, and the source of the parallel section numbers given throughout the notes; each section prints its parallel in the Revised Statutes of 1892 in parentheses, the originating act in the margin, and the case annotations beneath. Digital images. HathiTrust. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.35112105428496 (accessed 25 July 2026).
• McClellan, James F., comp. A Digest of the Laws of the State of Florida: From the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-two, to the Eleventh Day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one, Inclusive. Tallahassee, Fla.: Printed at the Floridian Book and Job Office, 1881. Compiled under Laws of Florida, ch. 3028 (2 March 1877). It digests only the laws in force in 1881, so the antebellum provisions on slaves and free people of color are absent from it; for those, use Thompson's Digest. Chapters used here: 4 (apprentices), 92 (descent), 95 (dower), 101 (evidence), 111 (guardians), 127 (jurors), 200 (wills), 202 (witnesses in criminal cases). Digital images. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Digest_of_the_Laws_of_the_State_of_Flo/9GASAAAAYAAJ (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Calkins, James E., comp. The Revised General Statutes of Florida: Prepared Under Authority of Chapter 6930, Acts 1915, Chapter 7347, Acts 1917, and Chapter 7838, Acts 1919, Laws of Florida. DeLand, Fla.: The E. O. Painter Printing Co., 1920. 3 vols. Adopted by the Legislature 9 June 1919. The compilation in force for the last decades covered here, and the source of most section numbers in the notes; each section prints its parallel section in the General Statutes of 1906 in parentheses, with the originating acts in the margin, and the annotations lead to the case law. Volumes 1 and 2 have been checked against every section cited here. Volume 1 covers §§ 1–2524; volume 2 runs to § 6334 and carries the jury, wills, descent, dower, probate, marriage, guardianship, apprenticeship, and penal provisions. Digital images. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Revised_General_Statutes_of_Florida/1f48AAAAYAAJ (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Thompson, Leslie A., comp. A Manual or Digest of the Statute Law of the State of Florida, of a General and Public Character, in Force at the End of the Second Session of the General Assembly of the State, on the Sixth Day of January, 1847. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1847. Printed by Thurston, Torry and Co. Digested under an act approved 10 December 1845 and approved by Governor W. D. Moseley on 28 July 1847. The antebellum compilation, and the volume for the provisions on slaves and free people of color that were repealed before the digest of 1881 was made. Digital images. Google Books. https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/_mYvAAAAYAAJ (accessed 25 July 2026).

Session Laws

• Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida. Pensacola: Floridian Press. The territorial acts cited in the notes: 20 November 1828 (wills, executors, guardians, apprentices), 2 November 1829 (marriage), 6 November 1829 (reception of the common law), 17 November 1829 (descent), and 23 January 1832 (interracial marriage). Digital images. University of Florida Digital Collections. https://ufdc.ufl.edu/law; individual years also at Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/actsoflegisl23flor (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida. The territorial session volumes holding the acts cited in the notes: the seventh session of 1828 (marriage licenses, conveyances, crimes, jurors, wills, guardians, apprentices), 1829 (adoption of the common and statute laws of England; descents), and 1832 (the amendment barring intermarriage). Digital images. Internet Archive. 1828, https://archive.org/details/actsofle1828flor; 1829, https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis29flor; 1832, https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis32flor (accessed 25 July 2026). The run is also posted, as Territorial Laws 1822–1845, by the State Library of Florida.
• General Acts and Resolutions Adopted by the Legislature of Florida at Its Twenty-fourth Regular Session, April 4 to and Including June 2, 1933. Tallahassee: published by authority of law, 1933. The general laws run from chapter 15858 in two parts, the second reaching 16302; the special acts follow from 16303. The Probate Act is chapter 16103, in part 2. Certified by Secretary of State R. A. Gray on 1 August 1933.
• Laws of Florida. The session volumes for the later acts cited in the notes — 1866, chs. 1467, 1469, and 1471; 1879, ch. 3126; 1881, ch. 3249; 1887, ch. 3720; 1889, chs. 3850 and 3890; 1891, ch. 4015; 1893, ch. 4122; 1895, ch. 4322; 1899, ch. 4749; 1907, ch. 5596; 1909, ch. 5911; 1917, ch. 7364; 1919, chs. 7828 and 7838; the Probate Act of 1933; 1943, chs. 21746 and 21932; and 1949, ch. 25126. The acts of 1838 and 1861 cited above are digitized at Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis38flor and https://archive.org/details/actsofgen60flor. The State Library of Florida and the FSU Research Center have posted the run for 1945 onward, and the territorial run to 1845; read the volumes for the intervening years in print, since the sessions from 1846 to 1944 are not yet in the digitized set. https://law.fsu.edu/research-center/digitized-legal-collections (accessed 25 July 2026).

Court Cases

• Adams v. Sneed. 41 Fla. 151, 25 So. 893 (1899).
• Benedict v. Wilmarth. 46 Fla. 535, 35 So. 84 (1904).
• Caras v. Hendrix. 62 Fla. 446, 57 So. 345 (1911).
• Daniel v. Sams. 17 Fla. 487 (1880).
• Hall v. State. 136 Fla. 644, 187 So. 392 (1939).
• Harrell v. Harrell. 8 Fla. 46.
• Hernandez v. Thomas. 50 Fla. 522, 39 So. 641 (1905).
• Johnson v. Wilson. 48 Fla. 76, 37 So. 179.
• Jones v. Jones. 119 Fla. 824, 161 So. 836 (1935).
• Keech v. Enriquez. 28 Fla. 597, 10 So. 91.
• McLeod v. Dell. 9 Fla. 451.
• Meyers v. Fogg. 7 Fla. 292.
• Scott v. Hotel Martinique. 48 So. 2d 160 (Fla. 1950).
• Simpson v. Gonzales. 15 Fla. 9.
• State v. Madoil. 12 Fla. 151.
• Tarrance v. State. 43 Fla. 446, 30 So. 685 (1901).
• Thomas v. Craft. 55 Fla. 842, 46 So. 594 (1908).
• Whittington v. McCaskill. 65 Fla. 162, 61 So. 236 (1913).
• Williams v. Kimball. 35 Fla. 49, 16 So. 783.
• Woodberry v. Matherson. 19 Fla. 778.

Secondary and Reference Works

• FamilySearch Research Wiki. "Florida Court Records" and "Florida Probate Records." What the county judge's probate, marriage, administration, and guardianship files contain, and where those files are held now. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Florida_Court_Records (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services. County records: the county courts before 1845, and the probate and estate records the State Archives holds. https://dos.fl.gov/library-archives/research/explore-our-resources/florida-history-culture-and-heritage/beloved/county/ (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Florida Memory. "A Guide to Researching the Territorial Era." What a marriage-license application records, and the surviving territorial-era county probate and marriage series. https://www.floridamemory.com/learn/research-tools/guides/territorialguide/page6.php (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Gause, Rich. "Florida Statutes and Laws of Florida: Historical Versions." The chain of Florida revisions and compilations from Duval's Compilation of 1840 forward, with the digitized copy of each. University of Central Florida Libraries. https://guides.ucf.edu/floridastatutes/historical (accessed 25 July 2026).
• "Sketch of the Evolution of Florida Law." Florida Law Review. Thompson's Digest through the Florida Statutes of 1941. https://www.floridalawreview.com/article/78220-sketch-of-the-evolution-of-florida-law.pdf (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Taylor, Grace W. "Jury Service for Women." 12 Florida Law Review 224 (1959). https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol12/iss2/6/ (accessed 25 July 2026).
• United States Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in Florida. Bulletin 157-9. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011418494 (accessed 25 July 2026).
• Waybright, Roger J. "A Proposed Juvenile Court Act for Florida." 4 Florida Law Review 16 (1951). https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol4/iss1/2/ (accessed 25 July 2026).

Citations

1. Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida (1829), "An Act Providing for the adoption of the Common and Statute Laws of England, and for repealing certain laws and ordinances," § 1, passed and approved 6 November 1829, declaring the common and statute laws of England of a general and not of a local nature, down to 4 July 1776, to be of force so far as consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and the acts of the Legislative Council; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis29flor : accessed 25 July 2026). Section 2 repealed the laws and ordinances in force to 22 July 1822. Carried forward as James E. Calkins, comp., The Revised General Statutes of Florida: Prepared Under Authority of Chapter 6930, Acts 1915, Chapter 7347, Acts 1917, and Chapter 7838, Acts 1919, Laws of Florida, 3 vols. (DeLand, Fla.: The E. O. Painter Printing Co., 1920), 1: § 71, headed "Common law and certain statutes declared in force," carrying the marginal citation "Nov. 6, 1829, Sec. 1" and the parallel section of the General Statutes of 1906 at § 59; the repeal and saving provisions of the act follow at §§ 72–73. Now Fla. Stat. § 2.01. Digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Revised_General_Statutes_of_Florida/1f48AAAAYAAJ : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
2. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3962, removing the disability of non-age of a married male minor; from Laws of Florida, 1917, ch. 7364, § 1. ↩
3. For the later rule, Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 4013 (General Statutes of Florida, 1906, § 2638), the contents of an indenture of apprenticeship, from Laws of Florida, 1866, ch. 1471, § 1. B. S. Liddon, T. F. West, and J. C. B. Koonce, comps., The General Statutes of the State of Florida (St. Augustine, Fla.: The Record Company, 1906); digital images, HathiTrust (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.35112105428496 : accessed 25 July 2026). Each section prints its parallel in the Revised Statutes of 1892 in parentheses and the originating act in the margin. For the territorial rule, the act of the seventh session covering guardians, orphans, and apprentices, Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida (seventh session, 1828), § 2, requiring the master to covenant to teach a trade and reading, writing, and arithmetic and to give a new suit of clothes at the end of the term; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsofle1828flor : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
4. McClellan's Digest (1881), ch. 4, § 1 (a poor orphan bound out by the county court "until he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, if a boy, and the age of sixteen, if a girl") and § 3 (a parent or guardian binding out a child under sixteen for a term not beyond twenty-one for a male and eighteen for a female); and, for the uniform later term, Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 4012 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2637). ↩
5. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 4015 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2640), binding out by a parent or guardian with the county judge's approval, and the assent of a child of sixteen or over. ↩
6. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), §§ 2–3, the county court binding out poor orphans and hearing apprentices' complaints of undeserved correction, insufficient food or clothing, or want of instruction; and, for the later rule, Revised General Statutes of 1920, §§ 4011, 4014 (General Statutes, 1906, §§ 2636, 2639), the cases being a poor orphan without estate sufficient for his maintenance (Act of 20 November 1828, § 2), a minor whose father died insolvent and whose mother cannot provide (Laws of Florida, ch. 1123, § 1, 29 January 1861), and a child under sixteen in the charge of a parent adjudged a vagrant (Laws of Florida, 1866, ch. 1471, § 12). ↩
7. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), "An Act Concerning Marriage License," §§ 2–6: the license issued by the clerk of the county court of the county where the woman usually resides, on a bond of two hundred dollars that there is no lawful cause to obstruct the marriage; an ordained minister, or a justice of the peace where ordained ministers were too few, to solemnize; and the certificate transmitted to the clerk within three months and entered in a book kept for that purpose. For the later rule, Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3933 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2574), the license from the county judge of the woman's county on a fee of two dollars, descending from the Act of 2 November 1829, § 2, through Laws of Florida, 1887, ch. 3720, § 2 (27 May 1887), and 1889, ch. 3890, § 1 (3 June 1889); and see the marriage-license regulation act, Laws of Florida, 1919, ch. 7828. ↩
8. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3934 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2575), ordained ministers of the Gospel, judicial officers, and notaries public authorized to solemnize marriage. Notaries were added by the act approved 8 February 1861, § 2, which also authorized them to take the renunciation and relinquishment of dower and the acknowledgement of deeds as fully as justices of the peace: Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida (1861); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsofgen60flor : accessed 25 July 2026). The territorial act of 1828 had named ministers and justices of the peace only. ↩
9. Jones v. Jones, 119 Fla. 824, 161 So. 836 (1935); Daniel v. Sams, 17 Fla. 487 (1880). ↩
10. Caras v. Hendrix, 62 Fla. 446, 57 So. 345 (1911); and see the annotation to Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3933. ↩
11. Laws of Florida, 1967, ch. 67-571, now Fla. Stat. § 741.211. ↩
12. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3937 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2578), marriage provable by the affidavit of two witnesses who saw the ceremony where no certificate was made or the license was lost; from Laws of Florida, 1879, ch. 3126, § 1. ↩
13. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), "An Act Concerning Marriage License," § 6, the consent of the parent or guardian of a party under age "made verbally to the Clerk, or proof of such consent by the oath of one credible witness"; and, for the later rule, Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3933 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2574), requiring satisfactory evidence of consent for either party under twenty-one, with a previously married minor excepted. ↩
14. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3942 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2583), applying all laws regulating marriage between white persons to the colored population from nine months after the act; from Laws of Florida, 1866, ch. 1469, § 5, "An Act to establish and enforce the marriage relation between persons of color." ↩
15. Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida (1832), no. 3, "An Act to amend the Act entitled 'An act concerning Marriage License,'" passed 14 January and approved 23 January 1832, §§ 1–2: intermarriage between a white person and any negro, mulatto, quarteroon, or other coloured person made unlawful, such marriage "utterly void and null," and the issue "regarded as bastard, or bastards, and incapable of having or receiving any estate real, personal, or mixed by inheritance"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis32flor : accessed 25 July 2026). Carried forward as Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3938 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2579). On the recognition of an out-of-state marriage of persons domiciled elsewhere and valid where made, as to property in Florida, Whittington v. McCaskill, 65 Fla. 162, 61 So. 236 (1913). ↩ ↩ ↩
16. Acts of the Legislative Council (1832), no. 3, §§ 3–4, the clerk of court forfeiting one thousand dollars for knowingly issuing such a license, and a penalty on any minister of the Gospel, justice of the peace, or judge who knowingly performed the ceremony; carried forward as Revised General Statutes of 1920, §§ 3940–3941 (General Statutes, 1906, §§ 2581–2582), with the penalty also at § 5419. ↩
17. Revised General Statutes of 1920, 2: § 5419 (General Statutes, 1906, § 3529), headed "Intermarriage of white and negro persons," punishing either or both parties "by imprisonment in the State prison not exceeding ten years, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars"; from Laws of Florida, 1881, ch. 3283, § 1, amended by 1903, ch. 5140, § 1. ↩
18. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3939 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2580). The one-eighth rule is a later addition; the act of 1832 defined the prohibited classes by description rather than by proportion of ancestry. ↩
19. Fla. Const. of 1868, art. IV, § 26; continued in Fla. Const. of 1885, art. XI, § 1. ↩
20. General Statutes, 1906, § 2462, headed "Married women's acknowledgments," from Laws of Florida, ch. 1835, § 1, and ch. 3011, § 1 (17 February 1877). ↩
21. Annotations to General Statutes, 1906, § 2462: that the private examination is indispensable to the validity of a wife's conveyance, Carn v. Haisley, 22 Fla. 317; that the officer's certificate is conclusive except in case of fraud, Shear v. Robinson, 18 Fla. 379; and that it may be impeached for fraud on clear proof but not by the wife's testimony alone, the private examination standing in place of the common-law bar of dower by fine and recovery, Hart v. Sanderson, 18 Fla. 103. ↩
22. Laws of Florida, 1943, ch. 21746, amending Fla. Stat. § 693.03; confirmed in Scott v. Hotel Martinique, 48 So. 2d 160 (Fla. 1950). Homestead joinder was preserved. ↩
23. Laws of Florida, 1943, ch. 21932, the Married Women's Emancipation Act, now Fla. Stat. § 708.08. ↩
24. Fla. Stat. § 694.04, validating conveyances by married women made before the 1943 act without a separate acknowledgment. ↩
25. General Statutes, 1906, §§ 1955–1956, "Removal of disabilities of married women," from Laws of Florida, ch. 3130, § 1 (11 March 1879); the same provision is in force in McClellan's Digest (1881). ↩
26. Fla. Const. of 1868, art. IX, § 1. ↩
27. Fla. Const. of 1885, art. X; and Thomas v. Craft, 55 Fla. 842, 46 So. 594 (1908). ↩
28. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), the act regulating conveyances, § 1: an estate of freehold, or a term of more than two years, to be conveyed only "by deed in writing, sealed and delivered in the presence of at least two witnesses"; and § 3 to the same effect for grants and assignments of trust. Carried forward, dated 15 November 1828, as General Statutes, 1906, § 2448, headed "How real estate conveyed," requiring "at least two subscribing witnesses." ↩
29. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), the act regulating conveyances, the wife relinquishing dower by making herself a party to the conveyance or "by a separate relinquishment under her hand and seal executed in the presence of two witnesses… and in no other way whatever." ↩
30. Thompson's Digest (1847), 4th div., tit. IV, ch. 1, sec. 3, § 6, the sheriff to offer the services of a convicted free negro or mulatto unable to pay the fine and costs "at public outcry," to the person taking him for the shortest period. ↩
31. Acts of the Legislative Council (1829), the act regulating descents, §§ 1, 10, 12–13, the estate of an intestate to descend in parcenary to male and female, with the right of dower saved and the estate going to the wife or husband in the cases there named; carried forward as Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3618 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2295), as amended by Laws of Florida, 1909, ch. 5911. ↩
32. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3629 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2306, from the Act of 7 November 1828, § 1), giving the widow "one-third part of all the lands, tenements and hereditaments of which her husband died seized and possessed, or had before conveyed whereof she had not relinquished her right of dower," to her use "during the term of her natural life," with her dissent from a will to be signified within one year after probate. That the widow's estate in the land is for life, Woodberry v. Matherson, 19 Fla. 778. ↩
33. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3630 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2307, from the Act of 7 November 1828, § 2), dower in personal property — one-half where there are no children or but one child, one-third where there is more than one — in fee simple and free of the decedent's debts. ↩
34. Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida (1838), no. 23, "An Act to amend An Act concerning Dower," passed 6 February and approved 8 February 1838. Section 1 required the widow to elect dower or a child's part within twelve months after probate of the will or the granting of letters of administration, or be confined to her dower; section 2 gave her, on taking dower, "only a life estate in the real property, to return at her death, to the estate of her deceased husband," and, on taking a child's part, "a fee simple estate in the real property, and an absolute title to the personal property including slaves." Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsoflegis38flor : accessed 25 July 2026). Carried forward as Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3632 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2309); and see Benedict v. Wilmarth, 46 Fla. 535, 35 So. 84 (1904), and Harrell v. Harrell, 8 Fla. 46, printed as the annotation to the 1906 section. ↩
35. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3631 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2308), the wife taking the whole estate where a man dies intestate without children, subject to her written election of dower within one year recorded with the county judge; from Laws of Florida, ch. 1878, § 1 (27 February 1872), as amended by Laws of Florida, 1919, ch. 7838. ↩
36. Revised General Statutes of 1920, §§ 3633–3634 (General Statutes, 1906, §§ 2310–2311); the articles set apart in addition to dower come from Laws of Florida, ch. 1437, § 5 (6 December 1864). ↩
37. Laws of Florida, 1933, ch. 16103 (no. 246), House Bill no. 271, "An Act Relating to Wills and the Probate Thereof, to Descent and Distribution of Decedents' Estates, to Dower, to the Administration of Decedents' Estates… to Revise and Consolidate the Law Relating to the Estates of Decedents and to Repeal All Laws and Statutes in Conflict Herewith," approved 24 May 1933. Section 198 repeals Revised General Statutes of 1920, §§ 3592–3615, 3618–3670, 3672–3677, 3679–3692, and 3695–3786, among others, "as of the effective date of this Act, except as to estates of decedents dying prior thereto." ↩
38. Laws of Florida, 1933, ch. 16103, §§ 1–2: the act is cited as The Probate Act and "shall take effect at 12:01 o'clock A. M. Eastern Standard Time, October 1, 1933, and shall govern the estates of decedents dying thereafter; and the estates of decedents dying prior thereto shall be administered in accordance with the statutes and laws of Florida in force prior to the effective date of this Act." ↩
39. Revised General Statutes of 1920, §§ 3964–3968 (General Statutes, 1906, §§ 2603–2607), the father's appointment of a guardian by deed in writing attested by two witnesses, or by will, the county judge's appointment where necessary and proper, the security taken, and his general jurisdiction over infants and their estates; from the Act of 20 November 1828, §§ 1, 50. That the guardian is the court's officer and the infant has no right to any particular guardian, Simpson v. Gonzales, 15 Fla. 9, printed as the annotation to General Statutes, 1906, § 2604; that a mother's testamentary appointment is a nullity, Hernandez v. Thomas, 50 Fla. 522, 39 So. 641 (1905). ↩
40. Acts of the Legislative Council (1829), the act regulating descents, § 17, a bastard capable of inheriting and of transmitting inheritance on the part of the mother; carried forward as Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3615 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2292). Limited to the mother and not her wider kindred by Keech v. Enriquez, 28 Fla. 597, 10 So. 91, and Williams v. Kimball, 35 Fla. 49, 16 So. 783. ↩
41. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3961 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2602), legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents, and the bastardy bond thereby made void. ↩
42. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3945 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2586), cohabitation of persons of African descent recognized as marriage before 1 January 1866 declared lawful and the children legitimated and made heirs of both parents and their blood relatives in every line of descent; from Laws of Florida, 1899, ch. 4749, § 1 — the chapter printed in the margin of the 1906 section, which declares persons of African blood who before 1 January 1866 "cohabited and lived together as husband and wife, and have prior to said date, recognized each other before the world, and were recognized as husband and wife," to have been lawfully married so long as the relationship existed. See the companion validation of certain marriages solemnized before 12 January 1866 at § 3944 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2585). ↩
43. Adams v. Sneed, 41 Fla. 151, 25 So. 893 (1899); Williams v. Kimball, 35 Fla. 49, 16 So. 783; and see Johnson v. Wilson, 48 Fla. 76, 37 So. 179, where a child tracing through such a marriage inherits in the absence of heirs with a better right. ↩
44. Laws of Florida, 1933, ch. 16103, § 5: "Every person, male or female, married or single, who is at least eighteen years of age and who is of sound mind may make a will. No other person may make a will." Subsection (d) saves a will made by a resident before the act if executed according to the law in force when it was made; subsection (e) voids a devise or bequest to a subscribing witness "unless there are at least two other disinterested subscribing witnesses to the will." ↩ ↩
45. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3592 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2269), the age to make a will of real and personal property at twenty-one; from the Act of 20 November 1828, § 51. ↩
46. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3593 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2270), a married woman disposing of her real and personal property by will as if unmarried, though a minor; from Laws of Florida, 1881, ch. 3249, § 1. ↩
47. McClellan's Digest (1881), ch. 200, § 1: a will of lands to be signed by the testator, or by another in his presence and at his express direction, "and shall be attested and subscribed, in the presence of the said testator or testatrix, by three or more witnesses, or else it shall be utterly void and of none effect," from § 1 of the Act of 11 February 1832; digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Digest_of_the_Laws_of_the_State_of_Flo/9GASAAAAYAAJ : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
48. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3595 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2272), the will of real estate signed by the testator or another at his direction and in his presence and attested by two or more witnesses in the testator's presence, and the executor a competent witness unless a legatee or devisee; from the Act of 20 November 1828, § 51. ↩
49. Revised General Statutes of 1920, 2: § 3595 and its annotation, that an executor is not an incompetent witness to the will or devise unless he is a legatee or devisee, Meyers v. Fogg, 7 Fla. 292; and, on the nuncupative will at § 3599, that neither land nor slaves would pass in this State by such a will, McLeod v. Dell, 9 Fla. 451. ↩
50. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3599 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2276), the nuncupative will valid only where made in the testator's last sickness and proved by the oaths of three witnesses present at the making, who must show that the testator asked them to bear witness, and passing neither land nor slaves. ↩
51. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3657 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2334), no person under twenty-one qualified to act as executor, executrix, administrator, or administratrix, and, where a minor is named executor, letters testamentary granted to any other executor named in the will, or, if none other is named, administration with the will annexed granted to the next of kin or another until the minor comes of full age; from the Act of 20 November 1828, § 5. ↩
52. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 3661 (General Statutes, 1906, § 2338), a married woman appointed administratrix only after her husband files his written consent with the county judge. ↩
53. Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida (seventh session, 1828), "An Act To raise a Revenue for the Territory of Florida," approved 22 November 1828, §§ 1–3, taxing land by the acre at a half, a quarter, and an eighth of a cent by grade; town lots at five cents the hundred dollars of value exclusive of improvements; "every slave over the age of fifteen years and under fifty, the sum of twenty five cents"; "every free man of colour over the age of twenty one years and under the age of sixty years, the sum of fifty cents"; and merchandise sales, tavern keepers, retailers, billiard tables, and four-wheeled pleasure carriages, with exemptions for religious societies, schools, lands of the United States, and lands whose titles were litigated under the treaty with Spain. Amended by the act of the following session, Acts of the Legislative Council (1829). ↩ ↩
54. Fla. Const. of 1868, art. XII, § 6: the legislature may provide for levying a special capitation tax, "but the capitation tax shall not exceed one dollar per annum for all purposes, either for State, county or municipal taxes." ↩
55. Bush's Digest (1872), revenue chapter, § 13: "A poll tax of one dollar shall be levied upon each male person over the age of twenty-one years and under sixty-five, which tax shall be equally divided between the State and county." The upper limit is fifty-five in McClellan's Digest (1881), revenue chapter, § 29, in otherwise identical words. ↩
56. Revised General Statutes of 1920, 1: § 708, headed "Poll tax; duty of collector," printing the parallel General Statutes of 1906 section as § 508 and the marginal citation "Ch. 4322, Acts 1895, Sec. 14; Ch. 5596, Acts 1907, Sec. 11." The section levies one dollar "upon each male person over the age of twenty-one years and under the age of fifty-five years, who has resided in this State more than one year, except such as have lost a limb," to be paid into the county school fund and collected when taxes on property are collected. ↩
57. Laws of Florida, 1889, ch. 3850 (no. 4), "An Act to Provide for the Payment of a Capitation or Poll Tax as a Prerequisite for Voting and prescribing the Duties of Tax Collectors and Supervisors of Registration in Relation Thereto," approved 25 May 1889. Section 1 assesses a capitation tax of one dollar annually "against all male citizens of this State of the age of twenty-one years and upwards"; §§ 2–3 require the list and the notation on the registration books, so that "only such persons shall be deemed qualified electors and authorized to vote," saving those not resident in the years in question and those who came of age afterwards; § 4 requires the receipts in book form with duplicates kept, stating the payer's name and the year; § 5 lets a challenged voter produce his receipts. ↩ ↩
58. Fla. Const. of 1885, art. VI, § 8, permitting payment of the poll tax to be made a prerequisite to voting; the requirement in force at the end of this period is General Statutes, 1906, § 170, from Laws of Florida, 1895, ch. 4328, § 1. Enforcement began with the act of 1889, note above. ↩
59. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), the act for the summoning of grand and petit jurors, § 8: "the free white male inhabitants of the Territory of Florida above the age of twenty one years and under fifty years shall be liable to serve as petit jurors… but for the trial of all causes affecting title to real estate, the jury shall be composed of free holders only." ↩
60. McClellan's Digest (1881), ch. 127, §§ 2–4: jurors taken from the registered voters of the county, all qualified electors liable to be drawn, and no person who is not a qualified elector permitted to serve; from Fla. Const. of 1868, art. VI, § 12, as amended in 1875, and Laws of Florida, ch. 1628, §§ 1–2 (1 August 1868). State v. Madoil, 12 Fla. 151, is printed as the annotation to § 4. ↩
61. Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 2771 (General Statutes, 1906, § 1570), grand and petit jurors taken from the male persons over twenty-one resident in the state one year and the county six months and citizens of Florida, with a person convicted of an infamous crime disqualified unless restored to civil rights; from Laws of Florida, 1893, ch. 4122, § 1, the act printed in the margin of the qualifications section; the act of 1891, ch. 4015, governed the composition of the grand jury and was amended by the act of 1893. ↩
62. Annotation to Revised General Statutes of 1920, § 2771, citing State v. Madoil, 12 Fla. 151. ↩
63. Tarrance v. State, 43 Fla. 446, 30 So. 685 (1901); and see Fla. Const. of 1868, extending suffrage and civil rights to men of all races. ↩
64. Hall v. State, 136 Fla. 644, 187 So. 392 (1939). ↩
65. Laws of Florida, 1949, ch. 25126, amending Fla. Stat. § 40.01 to admit women who register in advance to serve. ↩
66. Acts of the Legislative Council (seventh session, 1828), the act relating to crimes and misdemeanors, §§ 2–3: a person of sound mind is one "who hath arrived to the age of fourteen years, or before that age, if such person know the distinction between good and evil," and no "child under the age of nine years" shall be found capable of guilt of any crime. ↩
67. The common-law presumptions follow from the reception act of 1829, note 1 above. No general provision on capacity to commit crime appears in James F. McClellan, comp., A Digest of the Laws of the State of Florida (Tallahassee, Fla.: Printed at the Floridian Book and Job Office, 1881), which digests only the laws then in force, nor in the General Statutes of 1906; digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Digest_of_the_Laws_of_the_State_of_Flo/9GASAAAAYAAJ : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
68. Laws of Florida, ch. 1637 (6 August 1868), the general criminal act, drawn on throughout the crimes chapters of McClellan's Digest (1881) and of the General Statutes of 1906, neither of which carries a general provision on capacity to commit crime. ↩
69. General Statutes, 1906, § 3222, headed "Capability to be determined by the jury," providing that the common-law rule "that a boy under fourteen years of age is conclusively presumed to be incapable of committing the crime of rape" shall not be in force and that capability shall be determined by the jury; from Laws of Florida, 1901, ch. 4964, § 1. ↩
70. Roger J. Waybright, "A Proposed Juvenile Court Act for Florida," 4 Florida Law Review 16 (1951); digital images, University of Florida Levin College of Law Scholarship Repository (https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol4/iss1/2/ : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
71. Leslie A. Thompson, comp., A Manual or Digest of the Statute Law of the State of Florida, of a General and Public Character, in Force at the End of the Second Session of the General Assembly of the State, on the Sixth Day of January, 1847 (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1847), 4th div., tit. IV, ch. 1, sec. 3, § 2, from the Act of 21 November 1828, § 16: "Any negro or mulatto, bond or free, shall be a good witness in the pleas of the State for or against negroes or mulattoes, bond or free, or in civil cases where free negroes or mulattoes shall alone be parties, and in no other cases whatever." Digital images, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/_mYvAAAAYAAJ : accessed 25 July 2026). ↩
72. Thompson's Digest (1847), 4th div., tit. IV, ch. 1, sec. 3, § 3, from the Act of 21 November 1828, § 58, setting out the charge to be read to an enslaved witness; and §§ 4–5, from the same act, § 42, disqualifying anyone having an interest in a slave from sitting on that slave's trial, and requiring the court to assign counsel where the master did not. ↩

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