Michigan Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

An English common law on a French foundation

Michigan's law was English common law — judge-made law, handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature — through almost the whole period covered here. Two stretches ran on a different footing. The French regime at Detroit followed the Custom of Paris, under which husband and wife held most of what they acquired during the marriage as a community owned in equal halves. And for ten months from 1 July 1947 the state ran a statutory community-property system of its own, giving each spouse an undivided half of everything acquired after marriage; it was repealed on 10 May 1948, with rights already created under it preserved¹.

The French ground survived the change of flags. Detroit was founded in 1701 and held under France to 1760, then Britain to 1796. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — the federal law that organized the territory and supplied its first rules of property and inheritance — let the French and Canadian inhabitants keep their own customs for the way property passed on death and the way it was bought and sold². For a Detroit or River Raisin family before about 1810 the papers are French and British notarial records and the federal private-land-claim file; the county deed book did not yet exist.

Probate — the court process that proves a will and settles what a dead person owned — sat with the territorial Supreme Court after 1805 and then with the county probate court, so wills, estates, and guardianships are county records. Deeds moved twice before settling: from the clerk of the court to the register of probate, and then to the county register of deeds³.

A common law steadily rewritten by statute

The Revised Statutes of 1846 took effect on 1 March 1847⁴ and are the backbone of this guide; their chapters carried forward with numbering largely intact into the Compiled Laws of 1857, 1871, 1897, 1915, 1929, and 1948. Before them the law came in layers, each with its own printed volume: the Northwest Ordinance itself, which carried its own rules of descent, dower, wills and conveyances; then the Woodward Code (1805), the Cass Code (1816), the Code of 1820, and the revisions of 1827, 1833, and 1838⁵.

The dates that change what the records look like:

• 1787 — the Ordinance fixes descent, dower, and the formalities of wills and deeds.
• 1827 — the territorial Black Code, the bastardy act, and the poor laws.
• 1850 and 1855 — a married woman's separate estate, secured by the Constitution and then the Married Women's Act.
• 1867 — statewide registration of vital records.
• 1883 — the ban on interracial marriage removed.
• 1887 — marriage licenses.
• 1915 — a male grantor's marital status stated on every deed.
• 1957 — common-law marriage ends.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one

Full legal age was 21, for women and men alike, throughout. In the territorial years the Ordinance required the person making a will or a deed to be of full age, which at common law meant 21⁶. The 1846 code states the same age through the offices that depended on it: a guardian held a minor's estate until the minor reached twenty-one⁷, a deed required a grantor — the person giving the deed — of lawful age⁸, and a will required a testator, the person making the will, of full age⁹. The age dropped to 18 in 1972¹⁰.

Because guardianship ended there, the guardian's final account is filed at the ward's twenty-first birthday and dates it within months. It is one of the most useful documents in Michigan genealogy, and for a female ward it commonly gives her married surname.

A minor's legal capacity

A minor could own property at any age. What the law limited was the power to part with it. A minor's deed was voidable — it stood unless the minor undid it on reaching 21. So a minor's land was sold for him by a guardian under a probate order, and the sale leaves its papers in the probate file rather than the deed book¹¹.

From 1919 marriage released a minor from parental control and let a married minor sue or defend in a divorce suit as though of full age¹². Majority for every other purpose still came at 21.

Other ages that differed by sex

Majority was 21 for both. Two other ages turned on sex, and each moves a record.

A boy was bound as an apprentice until 21, a girl until 18 or until she married within that age¹³. The same ages governed when a guardian or the Directors of the Poor bound a child out, and that binding leaves a township record naming the child and the master¹⁴.

The marrying age was lower for a girl than a boy, and a woman's marriage cut short both her guardianship and her authority as an executrix. Those rules are set out under Marriage and Inheritance below.

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

A Michigan marriage entry showing a groom of 18 or a bride of 16 is perfectly regular: those were the ages from 1846 to 1951¹⁵. Earlier entries can show a boy of 14 and a girl of 12, the common-law ages the code replaced.

Younger ages in the register record a marriage that was good. An underage marriage failed only where the couple separated while still under age and never lived together again¹⁶. An ancestor's underage marriage is therefore almost certainly valid, and no annulment need be looked for.

Parental consent

Until 1887 a couple who had reached the marrying age married on their own consent, and no parent signed anything.

Consent arrived with the license. From 1887 the county clerk took the written consent of a parent or guardian whenever a party was under the marriageable age — under 18 for a man, under 16 for a woman, the figures fixed in 1846 and unchanged until 1951¹⁷. That signed consent, kept in the clerk's license file, is frequently the only document naming a bride's father.

From 1921 a separate act barred the marriage of a person under 16, and that section stood unchanged for the rest of the period. A license could still issue for a party under the marriageable age under the without-publicity act, on the written request of the parents or guardians¹⁸.

Marriage was complete on the parties' agreement

A couple who agreed presently to take each other as husband and wife, and from then lived together as such, were married — with no license, no officiant, and no entry in any book. The footing is one sentence of the 1846 code: marriage is a civil contract, requiring only the consent of parties capable of contracting¹⁹.

Justice Cooley said so for the Supreme Court in 1875²⁰, and the United States Supreme Court adopted his reading two years later²¹. What had to be shown was a present agreement; cohabitation and reputation alone were not enough²². These marriages were valid until 1 January 1957²³.

Where such a marriage had to be proved it was proved by testimony, so the evidence sits in the probate file or the federal pension application as affidavits from neighbors, and no county entry will exist. The children are legitimate heirs either way.

Two savings rules rescue a marriage that looks defective. One celebrated before a man who merely appeared to be a justice or minister was good if the parties believed in good faith they were lawfully joined²⁴. And Quakers, and any denomination with its own usage, married in their own manner²⁵ — so a certificate held by the meeting, with nothing in the county books, records a valid marriage.

A marriage performed in another state was valid here where the parties were competent to marry under Michigan law²⁶, which sends you to the neighboring states when no local record appears.

The formalities a marriage had to meet

Alongside the private agreement the statutes built up a set of formal requirements, each of which had to be satisfied before an official could act:

Between 1847 and 1887 the officiant made the record, and the statute told him what to put in it: both parties' names, ages, and residences, and the names of at least two witnesses. A Michigan marriage entry of that period therefore names four people, and the witnesses are usually kin.

The clerk's record, or his certified copy, was evidence of the marriage in any Michigan court, first under the code³² and then under the license act — which is why estate and pension files hold a clerk's certificate rather than a church register.

Void marriages

A marriage was void from the start, needing no court order, where the parties were within the prohibited degrees of kinship — too closely related — where either already had a living spouse, where either was insane or an idiot, and, until 1883, where one was white and one a Negro³³. The prohibited degrees run to two lists reaching step-relations and in-laws as well as blood kin³⁴.

Either party could sue to have a doubtful marriage declared void or valid³⁵, and the resulting court file commonly sets out a family's history in detail — worth looking for wherever a second marriage looks irregular.

Race and marriage

Michigan struck the racial bar out in 1883, by an act approved 11 April and given immediate effect. It rewrote the section to leave only the bar on marriage by an insane person or an idiot, and declared every interracial marriage already contracted valid for all purposes, with the children of those marriages legitimate as to both parents³⁶.

That retroactive clause matters as much as the repeal, and it created nothing: a couple whose marriage was void when they contracted it became lawfully married by force of the statute, with no filing made and no document generated. A family that appears unmarried in the 1880 census whose children nonetheless inherit from the father is showing this act at work.

Outside that prohibition the marriage law drew no racial lines, and because a present agreement was itself a marriage, Black couples before 1957 who never appeared before a clerk were married nonetheless, their children legitimate.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

Every free man could own land in Michigan, whatever his property, his religion, or his race. Free Black and mixed-race men bought, held, and conveyed land in the territory and the state, and appear in the deed books accordingly.

An alien held land on the same terms as a citizen. Any foreign-born person could buy, hold, sell, mortgage, leave by will, and pass on Michigan land exactly as a native citizen³⁷, and a title stood good however many foreign-born owners it had passed through³⁸. A foreign-born ancestor therefore needed no naturalization to buy a farm, so the absence of a naturalization record proves nothing about his landholding, and the deed may well predate any citizenship paper.

Which women could own land

For a woman everything turned on whether she was married, and the deed books show it. The two subsections that follow set out each case, and the signatures each required.

Single women and widows

A single woman or widow — a feme sole, "woman alone" — bought, owned, sold, mortgaged, sued, and was sued exactly as a man could. A woman dealing freely in the Michigan deed books, in her own name and with no husband beside her, is almost always unmarried or widowed.

Married women

A married woman was a feme covert, "covered woman," under coverture, the rule merging her legal identity into her husband's. What her name looks like on a document changes three times.

A wife's sale of her own land before 1855 comes with a probate petition attached. An act of 1844 had made the property hers and put it beyond her husband's creditors, but she still needed his consent or the court's order to part with it³⁹.

Wills made by married women start appearing after 1850, when the Constitution secured her separate estate and added the power to leave it by will⁴⁰. Deeds in a wife's sole name follow from 13 February 1855, the Married Women's Act having let her contract, sell, mortgage, and leave property by will as if unmarried⁴¹. A woman selling land alone in 1856 is doing what she could not have done in 1854.

Three routes let a wife act without her husband. An abandoned wife of 21 could ask the probate court for authority to sell her land and contract in her own name⁴²; a married woman who came into Michigan without her husband, he never having lived here, had those powers by operation of law⁴³; and the wife of a man under guardianship joined with his guardian to convey⁴⁴.

Each leaves a probate petition naming the husband and reciting what he did, often with the marriage date and his last known whereabouts. A petition of this kind is strong evidence that a marriage had collapsed.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

A Michigan wife signed her husband's deeds for essentially the whole period, so her signature is routine and her absence is what carries information.

The driver is dower, a widow's life interest in one-third of all the lands her husband held at any time during the marriage⁴⁵. Because it reached every parcel he had ever owned, a buyer needed her to release it by joining in the deed⁴⁶.

Her name on a deed therefore does not mean she was an owner; she was barring dower. A married man's deed without her signature usually means he was single or widowed at that date, and dower ran until 2017⁴⁷, so the check holds across the whole period. By the middle of the twentieth century a married woman of 18 could bar her dower as effectively as one of 21⁴⁸, so never assume a signing wife had reached majority. Her signature was also required to convey the homestead⁴⁹, and where the land was hers the couple conveyed by joint deed⁵⁰.

From 24 August 1915 the deed states it outright: every deed or mortgage of land had to say whether a male grantor was single or married, and the register of deeds had to refuse it for record otherwise⁵¹. For the last third of the period the marital status is on the face of the deed, and a man's status changing between two deeds dates a marriage or a death.

Two things qualify the inference. A wife who was insane or of defective intellect, and so unable to join in a conveyance, could be barred of her dower by court proceedings after two years in that condition⁵². That leaves its own court file, and explains a missing signature.

A sworn claim of dower appears in the deed records from 1917, and again under a second act from 1939⁵³⁵⁴. A wife whose husband had sold land out from under her filed it with the register of deeds to keep the dower she had never released, and missing the deadline lost her the right. The claim gives her name and address, names the man who was or had been her husband, and describes the land — a woman's own sworn statement, filed years after the sale it reaches back to.

A jointure barred dower too⁵⁵. That was property settled on her before the marriage, to be hers for life after her husband died. Where the bride was under age she agreed to it by signing alongside her father or guardian⁵⁶, which puts her father's name on the document.

Curtesy is the mirror image of dower: a widower's right to hold his late wife's land for his own life. Where a man and his wife held land in her right, he kept it for life after her death, whether or not a child had been born of the marriage. The exception was where she left children by an earlier husband, who took the land free of his claim⁵⁷. A widower occupying his late wife's land under that rule is exercising a right rather than inheriting, so the title sits with her heirs and the land surfaces again in their names.

Curtesy ended with the married women's legislation rather than by repeal. There is no curtesy in a wife's separate estate⁵⁸, and after 1855 that was substantially all she owned — so for a wife dying from the later 1860s onward, expect her land to pass to her heirs with no life estate in the widower.

The privy examination

A Michigan deed of the territorial and early statehood years often carries an extra certificate, recording that the wife was examined privately, apart from her husband, and said she signed freely. That is her privy examination, and whether it should be there depends on the year⁵⁹. An acknowledgment taken from a married woman after 4 August 1875 as though she were single was made good by a validating act of 1877⁶⁰, so an irregular certificate in those years is not a defect in the title.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or a gift made by will, as an adult did. Conveying it went through the probate court, where the sale was ordered and the deed executed by the guardian under bond⁶¹. Own at any age; convey freely at 21.

Where a Michigan deed conveys a child's land, the probate file holds the family. The deed names only a guardian and a buyer. The file names the child, the dead parent the land came from, the other heirs, and the sureties on the bond.

Witnessing a deed

Two witnesses signed a Michigan deed for almost the whole period. The Ordinance required a conveyance to be signed, sealed and delivered by a person of full age and attested by two witnesses⁶², and the 1846 code kept the two-witness rule⁶³. There is one gap worth knowing: under the Revised Statutes of 1838 a deed needed no witnesses at all, and the requirement of two came back in 1839⁶⁴. An unwitnessed deed from those months is regular. No minimum age was set for the witnesses, and competence was the test. In practice witnesses were adults, and often kin or neighbors: a witness who had signed might be called years later to prove the deed before a justice of the peace, where the seller would not acknowledge it himself⁶⁵. Those two names are worth collecting as associates of the seller.

Free people of color, Native people, and slavery

Slavery existed at Detroit under France and Britain, and enslaved people appear in notarial records and estate inventories as property, valued alongside livestock. The Ordinance of 1787 barred slavery in the territory, but the governor and judges read the bar as reaching only those newly brought in, and the Jay Treaty of 1794 protected the property of owners already resident, so people already held stayed held. The Constitution of 1835 abolished the institution and freed the three still in bondage⁶⁶.

Free Black and mixed-race people owned, inherited, and conveyed land throughout, and the deed books show them doing it. The territorial restriction fell on residence: an act of 13 April 1827 required Black and mixed-race residents to register with the county court, produce proof of freedom, and post a $500 bond within twenty days of arrival⁶⁷. Enforcement was patchy, but where the act was applied it leaves a county-court registration naming a free family and stating where it came from.

One rule shapes a negative finding. The highway statute excepted persons of color not possessing taxable property from the road assessment⁶⁸, so a propertyless Black man is absent from those lists by law, and his absence is not evidence that he was not there.

Native land was the federal government's business rather than the state's. The Ordinance of 1787 pledged that Indian land would not be taken without consent⁶⁹, and title passed by treaty cession and the allotment system that followed. For a Native family the documents are therefore the treaty annuity and allotment rolls and the federal land-office files, not the county deed books.

Inheritance

The territorial rule: the Ordinance of 1787

Before Michigan had a code of its own, the Northwest Ordinance supplied the rule, and it was a generous one for daughters and younger children. The estate of a person who died intestate — without a will — went in equal parts to the children and to the descendants of a child who had died first, those descendants dividing their parent's share among them. Where there were no children or descendants it went in equal parts to the next of kin in equal degree, and among collaterals the children of a dead brother or sister took their parent's share. Whole blood and half blood shared alike. The widow took a third of the land for life and a third of the personal property outright. The Ordinance let the territory replace that rule with one of its own, and Michigan had done so by 1820; territorial descent laws then ran through the revisions of 1827, 1833 and 1838 to the code of 1846⁷⁰.

So for an estate settled before 1820, expect an equal division among sons and daughters and a widow with a life third — the same shape the 1846 code later gave the state, arrived at half a century earlier. For the years between, read the descent provisions of the territorial volume current in the year you are working in.

Two separate systems

From 1846 land and personal property ran on different tracks, and they leave different records. Land passed straight to the heirs at the moment of death, so it may never be mentioned in the estate file at all and surfaces instead in a later deed or partition suit. Personal property — money, stock, furniture, debts owed to the dead person — passed through an administrator, after debts, and it is what the probate inventories and accounts are about⁷¹.

Land: who took it

Land descended in this order, subject to debts⁷²:

• In equal shares to his children. Where a child had died first, that child's own children divided the share their parent would have taken.
• No children: to his widow for life, then to his father.
• No children, widow, or father: to brothers and sisters and a dead sibling's children, his mother sharing equally with them.
• Then to his mother; then to the nearest relatives in equal degree.

Sons and daughters took equally. Where there were children the widow took no share of the land at all — she took dower, the one-third life interest above. That is why a Michigan widow so often holds a life interest while the children hold title, and why a partition suit twenty years later names the children as owners and their mother as a life tenant.

Half-brothers and half-sisters inherited equally with full ones. The exception was land that had come down from an ancestor: there, relatives outside that ancestor's blood were shut out⁷³, a rule that explains otherwise baffling divisions. Lifetime gifts counted as advancements against a child's share⁷⁴, and because they are itemized in the probate accounting they hand you transfers made decades before the death. By mid-century the widow owned one-third of the land outright rather than merely holding it for life⁷⁵.

Personal property: the widow's share

After debts and allowances the personal residue went as the land did, except that the widow took a child's part⁷⁶. Her share therefore fell as the family grew: one-half with one child, a quarter with three, a sixth with five. Read her fraction backwards and it gives you the number of surviving children, and getting it wrong will wreck a family reconstruction built from an estate division.

Two allowances came ahead of that share, and each puts a name in the file. The widow took her own clothing and her husband's, household furniture to $250, and other goods of her choosing to $200. She took it whether or not there was a will, and even where she turned down what the will gave her⁷⁷. So she appears in the file even where the will ignored her.

Where the whole estate was under $150 the probate court assigned all of it to the widow and children in one decree⁷⁸. For a poor family that decree is often the entire probate record, and it names every child.

A widow whose husband left a will she disliked was not bound by it. She was deemed to have taken the will unless she began dower proceedings within one year of his death⁷⁹. Her dower petition, or its absence from the file, is the record of that choice.

After debts, allowances, dower, and the widow's share, the court assigned the residue by a decree naming every person entitled and each one's proportion⁸⁰. That decree is usually the best single statement of a Michigan family's membership, and it accounts for children who had already died by naming their children.

Minors, guardians, and the age of fourteen

A guardian was appointed chiefly because a minor owned property, so where a child inherited nothing there is often no guardianship record at all.

At fourteen the choice became the child's own. Under 14 the probate judge appointed; above 14 the minor nominated his own guardian, subject to the judge's approval⁸¹. A minor over 14 living more than ten miles from the court could certify his nomination through a justice of the peace or the township clerk⁸², which adds a second document and a location to the file.

A guardianship in which the child does the choosing therefore shows that the child had reached 14, and brackets a birth year; where the judge appoints without a nomination, the child was probably under 14.

Custody followed the father, then the unmarried mother⁸³, and only where neither survived did the guardian take custody of the person as well⁸⁴. A guardianship of the person rather than merely of the estate therefore implies that both parents were dead or unfit, which is useful where no death record survives. A surviving parent could also name a guardian by will⁸⁵, so check the will before assuming a court appointment.

Every guardian gave bond to the probate judge to inventory the estate, account within one year and whenever directed, and settle at the end of the trust⁸⁶; guardianship ran to 21⁷. The sureties on that bond are worth recording as associates of the family.

A female ward's marriage ended her guardianship outright under the 1846 rule⁸⁷, so her guardian's final account is filed at her wedding and is often the earliest evidence of that marriage. By the Probate Code the rule had narrowed: her marriage ended the guardianship of her person, while the guardianship of her estate ran on to 21⁸⁸. Check which rule governed the year you are in before dating a marriage from a final account.

Children born outside marriage

Michigan was generous here from the start, so such a child may appear as an heir in an ordinary probate file with no comment at all.

Every illegitimate child was his mother's heir and inherited her estate as if born in wedlock, though he could not stand in her place in her relatives' estates⁸⁹. Where the parents married after the birth and the father afterwards acknowledged the child, the child was legitimate for all purposes⁹⁰ — already the law in 1846. So where an inheritance runs to a child born before his parents' marriage, the marriage is the record to look for.

A second route opened in 1949: the father and mother could acknowledge the child as theirs in writing without marrying, and the mother's failure to join through incapacity or death did not spoil the father's acknowledgment⁹¹. That written acknowledgment is filed with the probate court and names both parents.

Paternity and support ran in a bastardy proceeding from the territorial period⁹², and that file names the father — frequently the only document that does.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

In the territorial years a will was valid if it was in writing, signed and sealed by a person of full age, and attested by three witnesses⁹³. A territorial will with three names at the foot is following that rule.

From 1846 a will proved in a Michigan probate court was written by someone of 21 or more, whatever it gave away⁹⁴, and both land and goods passed by the one instrument, so the document itself is evidence that the maker had come of age.

A married woman could make a will from 1846 only with her husband's written consent attached to it⁹⁵. That consent is a separate signed sheet in the probate file, and it survives for wills made before 1850 and 1855 removed the condition⁹⁶.

From 1846 a will had to be written, signed, and witnessed by two or more competent witnesses⁹⁷. A will proved in Michigan therefore carries witnesses' signatures, and a handwritten will was proved on the same terms as any other. The one exception was the spoken nuncupative will, allowed for estates up to $300 and for soldiers and mariners⁹⁸, which leaves a probate file of sworn statements about a deathbed conversation naming everyone who was in the room.

A witness to a will could be any age, but had to take nothing under it. A gift to a witness who signed was void unless two other competent witnesses signed as well⁹⁹. Where that witness would have inherited had there been no will, he kept as much of that share as matched the gift he lost¹⁰⁰. A legacy among the witnesses means the legacy failed, and it tells you the drafter thought that person close enough to the family to leave something to.

The age to serve as executor was 21. Where the person named was under age at probate, the court appointed someone else to settle the estate under the will until he came of age¹⁰¹, so an executor who changes at a datable moment is often a young man coming of age. A named executor who refused, or failed to give bond within twenty days, could not act¹⁰².

A woman appointed executrix lost her authority on marrying, and her husband did not take it in her right¹⁰³; the same applied to an administratrix¹⁰⁴. A woman abruptly replaced in either office has usually just married, and the probate file names her successor.

The executor's bond required an inventory within three months and an account within one year¹⁰⁵, and that inventory is often the fullest description of a household that survives.

Taxation

What was taxed

Four levies fell on individuals and leave usable records. The property tax on real and personal estate was assessed each year by the township supervisor and entered on the assessment roll, which doubles as the jury pool; the General Property Tax Act of 1893 governs those rolls for the last half-century covered here¹⁰⁶. The highway labor assessment, below, is the one that reaches men who owned nothing, and it is the closest thing Michigan had to a head tax. Township and village poll taxes — a flat charge on a person rather than on property — ran alongside these for most of the state period, and they caught the same men the road lists did. A village council could levy a dollar a year on every male inhabitant of the village between 21 and 50, excusing the active members of the fire department and anyone exempt by general law, and the money went into the village's general highway fund¹⁰⁷. Villages had been levying such a tax since the incorporation law of the 1850s, and townships levied one too — the highway law added a day's labor to the assessment of every man liable to it. The village section survived until 1958. And from 1899 an inheritance tax fell on property passing at death¹⁰⁸.

The inheritance-tax return sits in the probate file and commonly lists every beneficiary with their relationship to the deceased, which makes it one of the most underused documents in a Michigan estate.

The highway labor assessment

The road list is the document to reach for. Each overseer of highways filed one with the township clerk within sixteen days of taking office, signed by him and naming every inhabitant of his road district liable to work¹⁰⁹. Men left off were added as they were found, along with newcomers not assessed elsewhere that year¹¹⁰.

The names on it are every male inhabitant above 21 and under 50 in the township, together with everyone owning or occupying land there¹¹¹. Each owed one day, and the list leaves out paupers, persons of color without taxable property, idiots, and lunatics¹¹².

Those annual township lists name men by neighborhood, so a name entering one brackets a twenty-first birthday, and a name leaving it — where the man is alive elsewhere in the record — usually marks a fiftieth. They run from the territorial period to about 1907.

Taxable ages at a glance

Courts

Jury service

A Michigan jury list is a filtered tax list, and that is what makes it worth reading. Township officers drew the names from the men assessed on the roll that year, taking only those with the qualifications of electors who were of fair character, sound judgment, and well informed¹¹³.

So a name on the list shows the man was 21 or over, resident, assessed for property that year, and well regarded by his neighbors. Land ownership formed no part of the test, for the regular panel or for a talesman — a bystander pulled in on the spot to fill out a short jury, who met the same qualifications as everyone else¹¹⁴.

Because the qualification ran through elector status, who could sit changed as the franchise did. The Constitution of 1850 confined it to white male citizens of 21 or over, to certain foreign-born men who had formally declared that they meant to become citizens, and to every civilized male inhabitant of Indian descent, born in the United States and not a member of any tribe¹¹⁵. Native men who had left tribal relations could therefore serve from 1850, unusually early, and are worth looking for on jury lists.

Criminal responsibility

Before 1855 the common-law ages governed: under 7 no capacity; 7 to 14 presumed incapable, though the presumption could be rebutted; 14 and over full responsibility.

From 1855 the disposition changed and moved the record. Every person under 16 convicted of a prison offense was sent to the House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders until he turned 21¹¹⁶, and it was kept separate from the state prison at Jackson¹¹⁷. A convicted child's papers therefore lead to the reform school, and the commitment recites his age as sworn to before the court — a dated age statement for a child who may appear nowhere else.

From 1919 a child's file leaves the criminal courts altogether and sits with the juvenile division of the probate court, where it is likely closed to inspection. Michigan had created that court by statute in 1907¹¹⁸, and by mid-century it took children under 17¹¹⁹.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify if he or she understood the obligation of an oath and could relate what they had seen. No minimum age was set; the judge decided competence witness by witness, and children did testify¹²⁰.

One rule widens who appears in a Michigan case file: religious belief was no disqualification, and a witness could not even be asked about it¹²¹.

Women as witnesses and jurors

Women could testify throughout. What reached a married woman was the general rule shutting out anyone with an interest in the case, which caught any party, rather than anything about her sex.

By mid-century the rules stood like this. Husband and wife could not be examined for or against each other without the other's consent, and neither could be made to reveal what passed between them during the marriage. The exceptions are the useful part: a wife could testify against her husband without his consent in desertion and non-support cases, and either spouse could testify against the other where a guardian was being appointed¹²². So a deserted wife's own sworn words survive in the desertion file, and a contested guardianship can hold testimony from both parents.

Women became eligible for juries when they became electors under the state suffrage amendment of 1918, and the Supreme Court confirmed it in 1920: the qualifications of jurors were for the legislature to set, and the word "men" in the jury provisions meant those who held a juror's qualifications¹²³. Their eligibility therefore rests on the ordinary juror statute rather than on any provision naming them. A jury list from the 1920s onward should carry women's names, and a list that does not is evidence about local practice rather than about the law.

People of color as witnesses and jurors

Any competent person could testify in a Michigan court whatever their race. The evidence rules turned on competence and, until the mid-century, on religious belief¹²⁴. Black witnesses accordingly appear in Michigan court files throughout, including as the neighbors who swore to a couple's marriage or a family's descent.

Jury service was another matter, because it followed the vote. The Constitution of 1835 confined the ballot to white male citizens and the Constitution of 1850 kept that limit, which the Supreme Court applied in 1866, holding that the state could confine the vote to white men and then deciding, on medical evidence about the shape of a man's nose, that the defendant was white enough to qualify. Michigan voters turned down a proposed constitution extending the vote to Black men in 1867. The legislature ratified the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869, the voters approved a state amendment by a narrow margin, and the Fifteenth Amendment took effect in 1870¹²⁵. From that year Black men were electors, and so eligible for juries; before it, expect an all-white panel whatever the county.

(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

• Michigan. Constitution of 1835. Art. II, § 1 (electors); art. VI, § 3 (a court of probate in each organized county); art. XI, § 1 (prohibition of slavery). Michigan Legislature. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/historical/miconstitution1835.htm (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan. Constitution of 1850. Art. VII, § 1 (electors); art. XVI, § 2 (homestead, and a married man's alienation void without his wife's signature); art. XVI, §§ 3–4 (homestead after the owner's death); art. XVI, § 5 (the estate of every female). Michigan Legislature. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/historical/miconstitution1850.htm (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan. Constitution of 1908. Art. III (suffrage, as amended 1918); art. XVI, § 8, the successor to the married woman's estate clause of 1850. Printed in the compilations of the period.
• Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio. 1787. Sec. 2 supplies the territorial law of descent, dower, wills, and conveyances, and the saving clause for French and Canadian custom; art. 3 pledges good faith toward the Indians and that their lands will not be taken without consent; art. 6 bars slavery and involuntary servitude in the territory. Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp (accessed 27 July 2026). Also reprinted in the front matter of the Compiled Laws of 1857.

Codes and Compilations

• The Compiled Laws of the State of Michigan. 2 vols. Lansing: Hosmer & Kerr, Printers to the State, 1857. The essential volume for this guide: it reprints the Revised Statutes of 1846 chapter by chapter, keyed to the original chapter and section numbers, with the compiler's derivation notes to the territorial acts and his historical notes on deed recording and married women's acknowledgments. Volume 2 holds deeds, dower and curtesy, aliens, descent, wills, estates of deceased persons, marriage, annulment, husband and wife, guardians and wards, apprentices, evidence, jurors, and the homestead exemption; volume 1 holds the Constitution of 1850, highways, and the taxation and township chapters. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledlawssta00coolgoog and https://archive.org/details/compiledlawssta01coolgoog (accessed 27 July 2026). Also HathiTrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011620315.
• The Compiled Laws of the State of Michigan. 1871, 2 vols.; 1897, 3 vols.; 1915, 4 vols.; 1929, 4 vols.; 1948, 5 vols. The successive compilations named in the citation chains. The 1929 compilation prints the Ordinance of 1787 in full in its front matter, pp. 93–94, with annotations collecting the cases on descent, dower, conveyances, and the French and Canadian savings clause. Digital images. HathiTrust. 1871, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010421245; 1897, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003931203; 1915, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001625659; 1929, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005313471; 1948, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003931206 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Howell, Andrew. The General Statutes of the State of Michigan in Force, Including the Acts of the Extra Sessions of 1882. 3 vols. The compilation cited as "How." in the Michigan derivation lines. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001625658 (accessed 27 July 2026). The 1913–14 Howell's Annotated Statutes of the State of Michigan is at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010421246.
• Laws of the Territory of Michigan. 4 vols., reprint. The Woodward Code (1805), the Cass Code (1816), the Code of 1820, and the revisions of 1827 and 1833, with the territorial session acts, including the acts of 12 and 13 April 1827. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003931209 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan Compiled Laws. Lansing: Michigan Legislature, current edition. Each section is printed with its derivation line running back through the Compiled Laws of 1929, 1915, and 1897, Howell's, and the Compiled Laws of 1871 and 1857 to the Revised Statutes of 1846 — the fastest way to follow a rule backwards. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan Statutes Annotated. Chicago: Callaghan, 1936– . The section numbering used throughout the Women's Bureau reports for Michigan and in the notes above wherever a rule is given as it stood in the 1950s.
• The Revised Statutes of the State of Michigan: Passed and Approved May 18, 1846. Detroit: Bagg & Harmon, Printers to the State, 1846. Published under the superintendence of Sanford M. Green. The source of most of the rules in this guide; its chapters are reprinted with their original numbering in the Compiled Laws of 1857. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003101313 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• The Revised Statutes of the State of Michigan, Passed at the Adjourned Session of 1837, and the Regular Session of 1838. Detroit: John S. Bagg, 1838. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003101282 (accessed 27 July 2026).

Session Laws and Territorial Laws

• Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan. The session-law series, in which each public act cited in the notes is to be read for its year. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000060523 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Other acts cited, each to be read in the session volume for its year: Laws of 1837, p. 256 (deed recording moved to the county register); Laws of 1840, pp. 139, 167 (custody; acknowledgments); Laws of 1844, p. 77 (married woman's property); 1849 PA 67 and 1877 PA 65 (dower release); 1850 PA 144 (homestead); "An Act to Establish a House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders," approved 10 February 1855; 1855 PA 168 (Married Women's Act); 1887 PA 128 (marriage licenses); Act 115 of 1839, § 17 (two witnesses to a deed restored); Act 108 of 1840, § 4 (private examination on a release of dower); 1877 PA 62 (validating married women's acknowledgments taken since 4 August 1875); 1893 PA 206 (General Property Tax Act); 1895 PA 3, ch. IX, § 3, the General Law Village Act (village poll tax), repealed by 1958 PA 116; 1895 PA 243 and 1917 PA 195 (amending the license act); 1897 PA 180 (license without publicity); 1899 PA 187, “Barring of Dower or Homestead” (CL 1948, 558.71), repealed by 1972 PA 40; 1899 PA 188 (inheritance tax); 1907 PA 323 (juvenile court); 1915 PA 79, as amended by 1937 PA 163 (marital status on deeds); 1917 PA 58 and 1939 PA 105 (claims of dower); 1919 PA 160 (married minors); 1921 PA 352 (marriage under sixteen); 1925 PA 107, amended by 1947 PA 112 (three-day wait on a marriage license); 1937 PA 207 (antenuptial physical examination); 1939 PA 168 (foreign marriages); 1939 PA 288, the Probate Code, with ch. 12A added by 1944 (1st Ex. Sess.) PA 54; 1947 PA 317 and 1948 (1st Ex. Sess.) PA 39 (community property, and its repeal); 1951 PA 37 (marriageable ages); 1956 PA 35 (common-law marriage ended); 1956 PA 205 (Paternity Act); 1971 PA 79 (majority at 18); and 2016 PA 489 (dower abolished).
• Public Acts and Joint and Concurrent Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Michigan, Passed at the Regular Session of 1883. Lansing: W. S. George & Co., State Printers and Binders, 1883. Act 23, p. 16, removing the bar on marriage between a white person and a person of African descent and validating the marriages already contracted.
• Territorial acts: the Act of 12 April 1827 (support of illegitimate children), 1827 Mich. Laws 287; and the Act of 13 April 1827, "An Act to Regulate Blacks and Mulattoes, and to Punish the Kidnapping of Such Persons," 1827 Mich. Laws 484. Both in Laws of the Territory of Michigan, above.

Court Cases

• Crane v. Reeder. 21 Mich. 24 (1870). On the Ordinance rule of descents and its duration.
• Ex parte Drye. 250 Mich. 210 (1930).
• Hannigan v. Hannigan. 328 Mich. 378 (1950). https://law.justia.com/cases/michigan/supreme-court/1950/328-mich-378-1.html (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Hutchins v. Kimmell. 31 Mich. 126 (1875).
• In re Irwin's Estate. 335 Mich. 143 (1952). https://law.justia.com/cases/michigan/supreme-court/1952/335-mich-143-3.html (accessed 27 July 2026).
• In re Meredith's Estate. 279 Mich. 298 (1937).
• May v. Rumney. 1 Mich. 1 (1847). The widow's dower under the Ordinance.
• Meister v. Moore. 96 U.S. 76 (1877). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/96/76/ (accessed 27 July 2026).
• People v. Barltz. 212 Mich. 580, 180 N.W. 423 (1920). The decision holding women eligible for jury service.
• People v. Dean. 14 Mich. 406 (1866). The decision applying the white-male franchise of the Constitution of 1850.
• People v. Merhige. 219 Mich. 95 (1922).
• People v. Pizzura. 211 Mich. 71 (1920).
• Tong v. Marvin. 15 Mich. 60 (1866).

Secondary and Reference Works

• "The Demise of Dower." Michigan Bar Journal (September 2016). https://www.michbar.org/file/barjournal/article/documents/pdf4article2948.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).
• FamilySearch. "Michigan Court Records." FamilySearch Research Wiki. The custody of court records through the territorial and state periods: the Wayne County clerk from 1796, the territorial Supreme Court from 1805, and the circuit courts after statehood, with the county courts abolished in 1833. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Michigan_Court_Records (accessed 27 July 2026).
• FamilySearch. "Michigan Probate Records." FamilySearch Research Wiki. What the county probate files contain — wills, guardianships, administrator bonds, estate inventories — and their starting dates: 1817 in most counties, 1797 in Wayne. The authority for the record statements in this guide. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Michigan_Probate_Records (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Library of Congress. "Courthouse Records." Michigan: Local History & Genealogy Resource Guide. https://guides.loc.gov/michigan-local-history-genealogy/courthouse-records (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan Land Title Standards. State Bar of Michigan, Real Property Law Section. Chapter IV collects the ways in which dower could be barred, and is the fastest route to the statutes behind them. https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/MICHBAR/44611bbd-6711-42cd-b769-2e5d4860ad2a/UploadedImages/pdf/LTS-thru3rdSup072017.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. "The Surprising History of Race and Law in Michigan." https://www.micourthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/speeches_vignettes_pdf/the_surprising_history_of_race_and_law_in_michigan.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Moreno, Paul. “The Workman Case: Racial Equality in Nineteenth-Century Michigan.” Michigan Bar Journal (December 2008), supplement from the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. The franchise under the Constitution of 1850, People v. Dean, the rejection of 1867, and the ratification and referendum of 1869. https://www.micourthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/verdict_pdf/workman/MSC_Dec_Workman_main.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Russell, Judy G. "Laws of the Great Lakes State." The Legal Genealogist, 23 September 2015. A volume-by-volume guide to the digitized Michigan compilations. https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/09/23/laws-of-the-great-lakes-state/ (accessed 27 July 2026).
• U.S. Women's Bureau. Addendum to Bulletin 157-21 — The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948, Report for Michigan, as of January 1, 1953. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954. The fullest statement of the changes made between 1948 and 1953, including the community-property act and its repeal. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011418515 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• U.S. Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Michigan as of January 1, 1956. Bulletin 157-21 (Revised). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1956. A digest of the constitutional and statutory provisions affecting women, arranged by numbered topic and citing Michigan Statutes Annotated; it supersedes the previous report and addendum for Michigan. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/legal-status-women-united-states-america-5430 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Wellman, Samuel. "The Reception of the Common Law in Michigan." Wayne Law Review. Reprinted by the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. https://www.micourthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Wellman.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).
• Wells, Gladys. "A Critique of Methods for Alteration of Women's Legal Status." Michigan Law Review 21 (1923): 721. https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol21/iss7/2 (accessed 27 July 2026).
• "The Woman Juror." Women Lawyers' Journal 15, no. 2 (January 1927). Records Michigan among the states where women became jurors on becoming electors, in 1918. http://wlh.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/the-woman-juror-15wlj151927.pdf (accessed 27 July 2026).

Citations

1. 1947 PA 317, the Michigan Community Property Act, imd. eff. 1 July 1947, § 4 (CL 1948, 557.204), vesting husband and wife each with an undivided half interest in property acquired after marriage, with § 14 (CL 1948, 557.214) ending curtesy and dower in the community estate while preserving dower in the husband’s separate property; the act is CL 1948, 557.201–557.220, repealed by 1948 (1st Ex. Sess.) PA 39, eff. 10 May 1948, subject to the savings provisions at CL 1948, 557.252 et seq. And see U.S. Women’s Bureau, Addendum to Bulletin 157-21 — The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948, Report for Michigan, as of January 1, 1953 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954), topic 10; digital images, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011418515 : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
2. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), sec. 2, saving to the French and Canadian inhabitants their laws and customs relative to the descent and conveyance of property — permitting the use of those customs rather than requiring it, according to the annotation printed with section 2 in the front matter of the Compiled Laws of 1929, p. 94; Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp : accessed 27 July 2026). The Ordinance is reprinted in the front matter of The Compiled Laws of the State of Michigan, 2 vols. (Lansing: Hosmer & Kerr, Printers to the State, 1857); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/compiledlawssta00coolgoog and https://archive.org/details/compiledlawssta01coolgoog : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
3. Compiled Laws of 1857, historical note preceding ch. 88, tracing the recording offices through the Woodward Code, the Cass Code, p. 50, the Act of 21 March 1820 in the Code of 1820, the Revision of 1827, the Revision of 1833, p. 379, and the Act of 22 March 1837, Laws of 1837, p. 256 ↩
4. The Revised Statutes of the State of Michigan: Passed and Approved May 18, 1846 (Detroit: Bagg & Harmon, Printers to the State, 1846), published under the superintendence of Sanford M. Green; digital images, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003101313 : accessed 27 July 2026), in force from 1 March 1847; the date is given in the compiler’s historical note preceding ch. 88, “Acknowledgments by Married Women,” in the Compiled Laws of 1857 ↩
5. the marriage acts descend from the Woodward Code, p. 42, through the Cass Code, p. 111, the Code of 1820, p. 250, the Revision of 1827, p. 280, the Laws of 1832, p. 6, the Revision of 1833, p. 829, and the Revised Statutes of 1838, p. 333, as traced in the compiler’s derivation note to Compiled Laws of 1857, ch. 107 ↩
6. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), sec. 2; Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp : accessed 27 July 2026), requiring the person devising or conveying to be “of full age” ↩
7. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 7; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3305 ↩ ↩
8. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 65, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2720 ↩
9. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, §§ 1, 4; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2825, 2828 ↩
10. 1971 PA 79, eff. 1 January 1972; MCL 722.52 ↩
11. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, §§ 7–8; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3305, 3306 ↩
12. 1919 PA 160, “Legal Status of Married Minors”; MCL 551.251; and see Michigan Statutes Annotated (Chicago: Callaghan, 1936– ), § 25.61, in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Michigan as of January 1, 1956, Bulletin 157-21 (Revised) (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1956), topic 2; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/legal-status-women-united-states-america-5430 : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
13. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 87, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3338 ↩
14. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 87, §§ 5–6; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3342, 3343 ↩
15. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3204; the section became CL 1948, 551.1, and was amended by 1951 PA 37 ↩
16. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 84, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3223 ↩
17. 1887 PA 128, eff. 28 September 1887, § 3, carried through How. 6222c, amended by 1895 PA 243, into the Compiled Laws of 1897, § 8604, and the Compiled Laws of 1915, § 11378, amended by 1917 PA 195, now CL 1948, 551.103, amended by 1951 PA 37; the consent attached to a party under the marriageable age fixed by Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 1, and the phrase “the party under marriageable age” is used in the parallel provision of 1897 PA 180, now MCL 551.202 ↩
18. 1921 PA 352, imd. eff. 18 May 1921, an act concerning the marriage of a person under sixteen; CL 1929, 12704; CL 1948, 551.51; the section stood unamended until 1983 PA 198, so the text in force throughout the period covered here is the act as passed. A license for a party under the marriageable age could still issue under the without-publicity act on the written request of the parents or guardians, 1897 PA 180; CL 1948, 551.202 ↩
19. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3205; carried to CL 1948, 551.2, as amended by 1956 PA 35 ↩
20. Hutchins v. Kimmell, 31 Mich. 126 (1875) ↩
21. Meister v. Moore, 96 U.S. 76 (1877); opinion, Justia (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/96/76/ : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
22. In re Meredith’s Estate, 279 Mich. 298 (1937), collecting the cases, quoted in Hannigan v. Hannigan, 328 Mich. 378 (1950); opinion, Justia (https://law.justia.com/cases/michigan/supreme-court/1950/328-mich-378-1.html : accessed 27 July 2026); the Meredith decision is reported in the 1937 volume of the Michigan Reports; and see People v. Pizzura, 211 Mich. 71, 73 (1920), cited for the rule in Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 19 ↩
23. 1956 PA 35; MCL 551.2 ↩
24. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 16; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3219 ↩
25. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 17; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3220 ↩
26. 1939 PA 168; Michigan Statutes Annotated § 25.15; Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 21; MCL 551.271–551.272 ↩
27. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, §§ 10–12; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3213–3215 ↩
28. 1887 PA 128; MCL 551.110 ↩
29. 1897 PA 180; CL 1948, 551.201–551.204; MCL 551.201 ↩
30. 1887 PA 128, § 3a, added by 1925 PA 107, eff. 27 August 1925; CL 1929, 12708; amended by 1947 PA 112, eff. 11 October 1947; CL 1948, 551.103a ↩
31. 1937 PA 207, the antenuptial physical examination act; CL 1948, 551.151–551.154, since repealed ↩
32. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 18; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3221 ↩
33. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 84, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3222 ↩
34. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, §§ 3–4; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3206, 3207 ↩
35. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 84, §§ 3–4; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3224, 3225 ↩
36. Public Acts and Joint and Concurrent Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Michigan, Passed at the Regular Session of 1883 (Lansing: W. S. George & Co., State Printers and Binders, 1883), Act 23, p. 16, approved 11 April 1883 and ordered to take immediate effect, amending § 6 of ch. 169 of the Compiled Laws of 1871 (compiler’s § 4724); the session volume is in the Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan series, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000060523 : accessed 27 July 2026). The prohibition it removed was Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 83, § 6, which had passed into Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3209, and the Compiled Laws of 1871, § 4724 ↩
37. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 35; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2808; the compiler’s note traces it to the Woodward Code and the Cass Code, p. 82 ↩
38. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 36; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2809 ↩
39. Laws of 1844, p. 77, carried into Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 85, § 25; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3289 ↩
40. Mich. Const. of 1850, art. XVI, § 5 ↩
41. 1855 PA 168, approved 13 February 1855, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3292; MCL 557.1 et seq. ↩
42. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 85, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3265, with the powers at §§ 3266–3275 ↩
43. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 85, §§ 20–22; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3284–3286 ↩
44. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 85, § 23; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3287 ↩
45. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 1, carried through Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2772, the Compiled Laws of 1871, § 4269, How. 5733, and the Compiled Laws of 1897, § 8918, 1915, § 11654, and 1929, § 13072, to CL 1948, 558.1 ↩
46. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 13, amended by 1849 PA 67 and 1877 PA 65, carried through Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2784, the Compiled Laws of 1871, § 4281, How. 5745, and the Compiled Laws of 1897, § 8930, and 1915, § 11662, to CL 1948, 558.13 ↩
47. 2016 PA 489, eff. 6 April 2017; MCL 558.30 ↩
48. Michigan Statutes Annotated § 26.261; Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 2 — the figure is given as the rule stood when that digest was compiled, and is not traced to an earlier act here; a power over lands vested in her during minority could not be exercised until full age, § 26.128 ↩
49. Mich. Const. of 1850, art. XVI, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 4496, as amended by 1850 PA 144; the rule as it stood a century later, with its exception for a purchase-money mortgage, is Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.1573, Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 3B ↩
50. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 65, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2721 ↩
51. 1915 PA 79, eff. 24 August 1915, carried through the Compiled Laws of 1915, § 11716, and 1929, § 13327, amended by 1937 PA 163, to CL 1948, 565.221; and see Michigan Statutes Annotated § 26.581, Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 5. The act also allowed a later affidavit to supply an omitted statement, and cured instruments recorded without one after ten years ↩
52. Michigan Statutes Annotated §§ 27.1197–27.1202; Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 15. The act is 1899 PA 187, headed “Barring of Dower or Homestead,” which stood in the dower chapter as CL 1948, 558.71 and was repealed by 1972 PA 40, imd. eff. 19 February 1972, so it was in force throughout the period covered here; the identification rests on the act’s title and its place in the chapter — the section text has not been read here ↩
53. 1917 PA 58, eff. 10 August 1917, §§ 1–2, an act to require the filing of claims of dower in certain cases and to bar dower on a failure to file, carried through the Compiled Laws of 1929, §§ 13099–13100, to CL 1948, 558.81–558.82 ↩
54. 1939 PA 105, eff. 29 September 1939; CL 1948, 558.91–558.92 ↩
55. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, §§ 14, 16; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2785, 2787 ↩
56. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 15; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2786 ↩
57. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, § 30, headed “Estates by the Curtesy”; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2803; and see ch. 67, § 12 (Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2823), saving curtesy and dower from the descent chapter ↩
58. Tong v. Marvin, 15 Mich. 60, 73 (1866), cited for the proposition in Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 15; the separate estate rests on Mich. Const. of 1850, art. XVI, § 5, and 1855 PA 168, the 1956 report citing the successor provision of the Constitution of 1908, art. XVI, § 8 ↩
59. the compiler’s historical note on acknowledgments by married women, printed with 1877 PA 62 and reproduced at MCL 565.281, which traces the requirement through the territorial act of 1805 (Woodward Code, p. 53; Cass Code, p. 45; Laws of the Territory of Michigan, vol. 1, p. 39); the Act of 27 May 1820, under which no estate of a wife residing in the territory passed by her deed without a previous acknowledgment on a private examination apart from her husband, while a wife living outside the territory who joined with her husband executed and acknowledged as if she were single and was thereby barred of dower (Code of 1820, p. 159; Territorial Laws, vol. 1, p. 518); its re-enactment in 1827 (revision of 1827, p. 259; revision of 1833, p. 280; Territorial Laws, vol. 2, p. 362), in force to and including 31 August 1838; the Revised Statutes of 1838, p. 258, § 11, requiring the acknowledgment to be taken separately and apart from her husband, without fear or compulsion, with her dower released in the deed itself, p. 263, § 7; and Act 108 of 1840, § 4, p. 167, under which dower passed only by a deed she executed and acknowledged on a private examination. And see the historical note preceding ch. 88 of the Compiled Laws of 1857 ↩
60. 1877 PA 62, imd. eff. 20 April 1877, validating any acknowledgment by a married woman taken since 4 August 1875 in the same manner as if she had been single ↩
61. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, §§ 7–8; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3305, 3306 ↩
62. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), sec. 2; Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp : accessed 27 July 2026), real estate to be conveyed by an instrument signed, sealed and delivered by a person of full age and attested by two witnesses ↩
63. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 65, § 8; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2727 ↩
64. the compiler’s historical note on the execution of deeds, reproduced at MCL 565.8: the Revised Statutes of 1838 required no witnesses to a deed, and two witnesses were restored by Act 115 of 1839, § 17, p. 219 ↩
65. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 65, §§ 16–19; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2735–2738 ↩
66. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), art. 6, barring slavery and involuntary servitude in the territory otherwise than as punishment for crime; Mich. Const. of 1835, art. XI, § 1, headed “Prohibition of Slavery”, under which neither slavery nor involuntary servitude was ever to be introduced into the state except as punishment for crime. The British census of 1782, the reading given the Ordinance by the territorial governor and judges, the Jay Treaty of 1794, and the counts of 1810, 1830 and 1835 are collected in Paul Moreno, “The Workman Case: Racial Equality in Nineteenth-Century Michigan,” Michigan Bar Journal (December 2008), supplement from the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society ↩
67. Act of 13 April 1827, “An Act to Regulate Blacks and Mulattoes, and to Punish the Kidnapping of Such Persons,” 1827 Mich. Laws 484, amended 1828; printed in Laws of the Territory of Michigan, digital images, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003931209 : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
68. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 5, subd. 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1017 ↩
69. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), art. 3, pledging that the utmost good faith should be observed toward the Indians and that their lands and property should never be taken from them without their consent ↩
70. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), sec. 2; Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp : accessed 27 July 2026), the descent and dower rule to remain in force until altered by the legislature of the district. Michigan Territory was organized in 1805, when legislative power lay with the governor and judges, who could adopt laws already in force in existing states; the territory had a descent law of its own by 1820. The compiler’s derivation note to the descent chapter of the Revised Statutes of 1846 lists the prior laws on title by descent as the Code of 1820, p. 29; the Revision of 1827, p. 64; the Code of 1833, p. 308; and the Revised Statutes of 1838, p. 267: Compiled Laws of 1857, p. 858, note (a) at the head of the descent chapter, the compiler's ch. 91. The Michigan Supreme Court described the Ordinance as providing a rule of descents to be operative until altered by the district legislature, Crane v. Reeder, 21 Mich. 24, 61, 65, 66, 75 (1870), and held the widow entitled under it to the common-law right of dower, May v. Rumney, 1 Mich. 1 (1847). Section 2 is printed in full, with these annotations, in the front matter of the Compiled Laws of 1929, pp. 93–94 ↩
71. descent of land, Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, § 1 (Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2812); distribution of personal estate, ch. 70, § 1 (Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2877) ↩
72. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2812 ↩
73. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, § 5; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2816 ↩
74. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, §§ 6–11; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2817–2822 ↩
75. CL 1948, § 702.80 (Probate Code of 1939, 1939 PA 288), quoted in In re Irwin’s Estate, 335 Mich. 143 (1952); opinion, Justia (https://law.justia.com/cases/michigan/supreme-court/1952/335-mich-143-3.html : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩
76. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 70, § 1, subd. 6; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2877 ↩
77. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 70, § 1, subd. 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2877; the allowance as it stood a century later is Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(138), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 16 ↩
78. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 70, § 1, subd. 4; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2877; and see Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(163), subsec. 2, Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 16, on estates not exceeding $150 ↩
79. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 66, §§ 18–19; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2789, 2790; the widow’s election as it stood a century later is Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(139), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 15 ↩
80. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 74, §§ 2–3; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2992, 2993 ↩
81. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, §§ 2–3; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3300, 3301 ↩
82. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 4; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3302 ↩
83. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 5, deriving from Laws of 1840, p. 139, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3303; the same rule a century later is Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(206), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 25 ↩
84. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 6; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3304 ↩
85. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, §§ 10–11; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3308, 3309; by the Probate Code the power belonged to a surviving parent, Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(210), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 26 ↩
86. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 8; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3306 ↩
87. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 86, § 28; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 3326 ↩
88. Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(223); Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 1; and see Ex parte Drye, 250 Mich. 210, 214 (1930) ↩
89. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, §§ 2–3; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2813, 2814; the rule was unchanged a century later, Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(151), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 29 ↩
90. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 67, § 4; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2815 ↩
91. Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(153), added 1949; Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 28 ↩
92. Act of 12 April 1827, 1827 Mich. Laws 287, printed in Laws of the Territory of Michigan; later the Paternity Act, 1956 PA 205 ↩
93. Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio (1787), sec. 2; Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp : accessed 27 July 2026), estates to be devised by will in writing, signed and sealed by the person “being of full age” and attested by three witnesses ↩
94. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, §§ 1, 4; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2825, 2828 ↩
95. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, § 1, proviso; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2825 ↩
96. Mich. Const. of 1850, art. XVI, § 5; 1855 PA 168, § 1; and see Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 14, recording that no restriction remained on a married woman’s disposition of her separate property by will ↩
97. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, § 5; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2829 ↩
98. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, § 6; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2830 ↩
99. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, § 7; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2831 ↩
100. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 68, § 8; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2832 ↩
101. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 69, §§ 1, 6; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2864, 2869; the same rule a century later is Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.3178(109), Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 2 ↩
102. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 69, §§ 4–5; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 2867, 2868 ↩
103. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 69, § 8; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2871 ↩
104. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 70, § 13; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2889 ↩
105. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 69, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2865 ↩
106. 1893 PA 206; MCL 211.1 et seq. ↩
107. the village levy is the General Law Village Act, 1895 PA 3, imd. eff. 19 February 1895, ch. IX, § 3: the council was empowered to levy and collect each year a poll tax of one dollar on every male inhabitant of the village between the ages of twenty-one and fifty, excepting active members of the fire department and such other persons as were exempted by general law, the money to be paid into the general highway fund. Compiled Laws of 1915, § 2728; carried from the Compiled Laws of 1897, § 2854, through the Compiled Laws of 1929, § 1637, to CL 1948, 69.3, and repealed by 1958 PA 116, eff. 13 September 1958. A village poll tax had been levied under the earlier village law as well: Compiled Laws of 1857, § 2137 (ch. 72, § 40), exempting the members of a village fire, hose, and hook and ladder company from serving on juries and from the payment of a poll tax in the village. For the township poll tax, Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1017 (Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 5), subd. 3, directing that a day be added to the highway assessment of each person liable to a poll tax and assessed on the township roll ↩
108. 1899 PA 188, eff. 23 September 1899; MCL 205.201 et seq., repealed for deaths after 30 September 1993 ↩
109. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 3; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1015 ↩
110. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 7; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1019 ↩
111. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 1; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1013 ↩
112. Revised Statutes of 1846, ch. 23, § 5; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 1017 ↩
113. Compiled Laws of 1857, § 4351 (ch. 128, § 9, return and summoning of jurors); and see §§ 4350, 4352–4354 ↩
114. Compiled Laws of 1857, § 4376 ↩
115. Mich. Const. of 1850, art. VII, § 1 ↩
116. “An Act to Establish a House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders,” approved 10 February 1855, §§ 10, 12; Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 6243, 6245 ↩
117. same act, § 11; Compiled Laws of 1857, § 6244 ↩
118. 1907 PA 323, implemented 1919 ↩
119. 1939 PA 288, ch. 12A, added by 1944 (1st Ex. Sess.) PA 54; MCL 712A.2; and see MCL 750.145 ↩
120. Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3770, 3771, 4335 ↩
121. Compiled Laws of 1857, § 4336 (ch. 127, “Of Evidence,” § 96) ↩
122. Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.916, and § 27.3178(202) for guardianship proceedings; Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 13; the rules are given as they stood when that digest was compiled, and are not traced to an earlier act here ↩
123. People v. Barltz, 212 Mich. 580, 180 N.W. 423 (1920), holding the qualifications of jurors a matter of legislative control and reading “men” in the jury clause as meaning those who held the qualifications of jurors, with no thought of sex; followed in People v. Merhige, 219 Mich. 95 (1922). The juror statute construed was Compiled Laws of 1915, § 12190; the suffrage amendment was to Mich. Const. of 1908, art. III, ratified 1918. And see Michigan Statutes Annotated § 27.246, with the grounds of excuse at §§ 27.263, 27.264 applying equally to both sexes, Report for Michigan, 1956, topic 32 ↩
124. Compiled Laws of 1857, §§ 3770, 3771, 4335, 4336 ↩
125. Mich. Const. of 1835, art. II, § 1, and Mich. Const. of 1850, art. VII, § 1, confining the franchise to white male citizens and the qualified inhabitants of Indian descent named in that section; applied in People v. Dean, 14 Mich. 406 (1866), where the court held that the state might limit the vote to white men but that Dean was white enough to qualify. Michigan voters rejected a proposed constitution extending the vote to Black men in 1867; the legislature ratified the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869 and the voters approved a state amendment by 54,000 to 51,000; U.S. Const. amend. XV (1870). See Paul Moreno, “The Workman Case: Racial Equality in Nineteenth-Century Michigan,” Michigan Bar Journal (December 2008), supplement from the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society; digital images, Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society (https://www.micourthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/verdict_pdf/workman/MSC_Dec_Workman_main.pdf : accessed 27 July 2026) ↩