New Hampshire Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

An English legal system

New Hampshire's law came from England. Settlement began on the Piscataqua about 1623, and the region became a royal province in 1679. English common law governed from the start. Common law is judge-made law, handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature.

The state kept that system on purpose. When New Hampshire wrote its own constitution, it provided that all laws previously used and approved in the Province, Colony, or State, and usually practiced on in the courts, stayed in force until the legislature changed them¹. Property between husband and wife ran on the common law until 1845. The married women's acts then dismantled the old rules in stages down to 1876.

Two features shape almost every New Hampshire record:

• Probate belonged to a judge of probate. He handled wills and estates, and he also appointed and removed the guardians of minors².
• The province was a single probate district until 1769. An act of that year divided it into five counties, and the Crown confirmed the division in 1771³. The earliest New Hampshire wills and administrations therefore sit in one province-wide series rather than five county ones.

A common law rewritten by statute

The General Court replaced common-law rules with statutes over time. Each date below marks a change you will see in the records.

• 1714 — the province acts on marriage, dower, and incest.
• 1718 — the province intestacy act. The eldest son takes a double portion.
• 1789 — that act is repealed. Land descends in equal shares among the children.
• 1791 — the state acts on deeds and on the attestation of wills take their long-running form.
• 1804 — dower is confined to cultivated land.
• 1842 — the Revised Statutes. Dower reaches only the land the husband held at his death.
• 1846 — a wife may hold property to her own separate use.
• 1851 — the homestead right. A husband's deed of the family home needs his wife's signature.
• 1860 — a married woman holds her own property free of her husband's control.
• 1876 — a married woman may make contracts, and sue and be sued, as if unmarried.
• 1907 — statutory marriage ages.
• 1947 — women may serve on juries.

For any given year, look for the statute in force. Where none had been passed, the common law governed.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one

Full legal age in New Hampshire was 21. It was the same for women and for men, through 1950. The state never passed a general statute setting it, so the common-law age governed both sexes throughout⁴. Anyone under 21 was an "infant" in legal language, even a 20-year-old.

What a minor could and could not do

A minor could own property. What the law limited was the minor's power to part with it.

• A deed or contract made by a minor was voidable. That means it was good until the minor chose to undo it. He could reject it on reaching 21, or he could confirm it⁵.
• Necessaries were the exception. These were food, clothing, lodging, schooling, and the like, suited to the minor's station. A minor had to pay a reasonable price for them⁶.
• A married minor could release dower or curtesy. These are the life interests each spouse stood to take in the other's land, set out under Property Ownership below. A wife under 21 could join her husband in releasing her dower, and from 1899 a husband under 21 could join his wife in releasing his curtesy⁷. Never assume a signing wife had reached 21.

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

Into the twentieth century the common-law ages governed. The Revised Statutes of 1842 wrote them down. The age of consent was 14 for a male and 12 for a female⁸. The same sentence carried forward unchanged through the Compiled Statutes of 1854 and the General Laws of 1878⁹.

A couple who had reached those ages married on their own consent. No statute required a parent's permission at any age. A nineteenth-century New Hampshire marriage record therefore stands alone, with no consent paper behind it.

The act of 1907 built the modern structure. It set a minimum age and an age of consent:

• Below 14 for a male and 13 for a female, no valid marriage could be made at all. Such a marriage was void¹⁰.
• Between that minimum age and the age of consent — 18 for a male and 16 for a female — the marriage was valid but could be annulled. The underage party could sue in the superior court, unless he or she confirmed the marriage after reaching the age¹¹.

An amendment of 1923 raised the ages to 20 for a male and 18 for a female. It also let a parent or guardian bring the annulment suit¹².

When a parent's consent was needed

Between the minimum age and the age of consent, a couple needed permission. The 1907 act required three things:

• The couple applied in writing, together with the parent or guardian having custody of the underage party.
• They applied to a justice of the superior court, or to the judge of probate of the county.
• The judge heard them at once, and granted written permission if a special cause made the marriage desirable¹³.

A New Hampshire marriage of a teenager after 1907 therefore carries two papers with the license. One is a parent's written consent, and the other is a judge's written permission. Both name the family, and both were filed with the town clerk. A town clerk could not issue a certificate, and a magistrate or minister could not solemnize, without them¹⁴.

Who could not marry whom

Marriage within the prohibited degrees of kinship was incestuous and void, and the children of such a marriage were illegitimate. The province act of 1714 set out the degrees¹⁵. The Revised Statutes of 1842 restated them as two lists, one of the women a man could not marry and one of the men a woman could not marry¹⁶. An act of 1869 added first cousins¹⁷. A bigamous marriage was void without any legal process.

Health restrictions came later:

• From 1907, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, and insane persons were forbidden to marry unless the woman was over 45¹⁸.
• From 1 October 1938, each applicant filed a physician's certificate, backed by a blood test, showing that the applicant was free of syphilis¹⁹.

That certificate was a confidential report, filed apart from the marriage record. It does not appear in the marriage register even though the couple produced one.

Race and marriage

New Hampshire never restricted marriage by race. The impediments the statutes named were kinship, an existing marriage, want of age, and from 1907 health. They applied to all persons alike, whatever their race. No marriage chapter in any New Hampshire code makes race a bar, and no session law adds one²⁰.

Black, mixed-race, and enslaved couples therefore married under the ordinary law. They appear in the same town and church records as everyone else. As a practical matter an enslaver's consent controlled, and enslaved spouses could be sold apart. A recorded marriage may describe a household that was later broken up.

Marriage required a ceremony

A valid marriage required a ceremony before an authorized official. The courts settled this early and held to it. Some form of solemnization was required, and so was attestation before an official who could certify the marriage to the recording clerk²¹. That is why New Hampshire had no common-law marriage during a couple's joint lives. New Hampshire marriage evidence is a return, not a declaration.

The couple also had to give public notice before the ceremony. Into the mid-nineteenth century the intention was published on three public meeting days and certified under the town clerk's hand. An act of 1854 replaced publication with a notice of intention filed in the clerk's office, and the new system began on 1 January 1855²².

The duty to record is older still. The province act of 1714 gave a married couple a week to have the marriage recorded, and made the town clerk return a quarterly list of marriages, births, and burials²³. The marriage record is therefore a town record from 1714 forward, kept by the town clerk rather than by a church or a county office. From 1855 the notice of intention is a second entry for the same couple.

An irregular ceremony still made a marriage. A marriage was not void because the person who performed it lacked authority, or because of an informality in the certificate of intention. It stood as long as the marriage was otherwise lawful and either party believed they were lawfully married²⁴. A runaway marriage is a real marriage, and its children are legitimate. The penalty fell on the officiant, who forfeited sixty dollars for marrying a couple without the clerk's certificate²⁵.

Who could officiate widened over time, and that decides whose book to search:

• Under the province act of 1714, only a settled minister residing in the province could marry people, and only in his own parish²⁶.
• The Revised Statutes of 1842 added any justice of the peace within his county, and any ordained minister residing in the state in regular standing with his denomination²⁷.
• Later acts admitted out-of-state ministers under a commission from the governor or secretary of state²⁸.
• Quakers kept the right to solemnize marriages in the way usually practiced among them²⁹, so those marriages sit in monthly meeting records.

Cohabitation and repute

One New Hampshire rule has no counterpart in most states. Persons who cohabited and acknowledged each other as husband and wife, and were generally reputed to be such, for three years and until the death of one of them, are afterwards deemed to have been legally married³⁰. It first appears in the Revised Statutes of 1842 and runs unbroken into the modern code.

The rule operates only on death, and only afterwards. It does not make a living couple married. What it does is settle inheritance, dower, and legitimacy for a couple who never had a ceremony. This is why a New Hampshire probate file may treat a woman as a widow when no marriage record exists. The proof will be depositions from neighbors among the estate papers.

In civil actions, acknowledgment, cohabitation, and reputation were competent proof of a marriage³¹. In a bigamy prosecution there had to be proof of a marriage in fact³².

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

The right to acquire, hold, and convey land belonged to every free man in New Hampshire, of any race and at any age. A male took land from birth when it came to him by inheritance, gift, or devise. A devise is a gift of land made by will.

The age that mattered was the age at which he could deal in it himself. At 21 he bought, sold, mortgaged, and conveyed in his own name. Before 21 his deed was voidable⁵. Marriage left him with the same power a single man held. A married man bought, sold, and devised his own land in his own right, and his deed carried his signature alone, subject to the homestead rule below.

A resident alien held land like a citizen. From the Revised Statutes of 1842, any alien resident in the state could take, purchase, hold, convey, or devise real estate, and it descended as if he were a native citizen³³. The State's claim to such an estate by escheat was discharged³⁴. Escheat is the reversion of land to the state for want of an heir. A foreign-born ancestor needed no naturalization to hold his farm, so a landowning immigrant's deed is not evidence that he had naturalized.

Women and land ownership

Everything turned on whether a woman was married. A single or widowed woman was a feme sole, "woman alone." She bought, owned, sold, mortgaged, sued, and was sued exactly as a man did. A woman transacting freely in the New Hampshire deed books before 1846 is almost always unmarried or widowed. After 1846 a wife with a recorded settlement could deal in her separate property too.

A married woman was a feme covert, "covered woman," under coverture. Coverture was the common-law rule that a wife's legal identity merged into her husband's. He controlled her property and took its rents and profits, and her contracts had no force on their own.

New Hampshire dismantled coverture in stages. Each stage changes what you should expect to find.

The powers and the entitlement arrived separately, and it helps to keep them apart.

• By 1854 a married woman could hold property to her sole and separate use. As to that property she had the same rights and the same remedies in her own name, at law and in equity. She could be sued on her own contracts and wrongs just as if she were unmarried³⁵.
• What she needed first was property held on those terms. Before 1860 that meant a marriage settlement or a gift made to her sole and separate use under the acts of 1846.
• The 1860 act supplied the other half. It made every married woman entitled as of right to what she earned, inherited, or was given³⁶.
• General contractual capacity came last. An act approved 18 July 1876 provided that every married woman might make contracts, and sue and be sued, in the same manner as if she were sole and unmarried. Two limits lasted into the twentieth century. The laws on contracts and conveyances between husband and wife were left untouched, and no promise by a wife to answer for her husband's debt bound her³⁷.
• An explanatory act approved 10 July 1877 added that the 1876 act did not cut down a wife's right to release, mortgage, or convey her homestead, dower, or other interest in property not held to her own separate use³⁸.

The 1846 recording requirement is worth knowing on its own. A New Hampshire marriage settlement went on record in the county registry like a deed. It is therefore indexed under the wife's maiden name, which ties her birth surname to her married one.

Three earlier routes let particular wives act alone:

• A wife deserted for three months without support, or who was the injured party where a cause of divorce existed, could hold property, contract, sue, and be sued as if unmarried³⁹. The probate judge could order the absent husband's property sold for her support⁴⁰.
• A woman married to an alien or to a citizen of another state, living separate here for six months, had the same powers and the custody of her minor children⁴¹.
• A married woman could petition to have a trustee appointed to hold her property⁴².

Each of these leaves a probate file that names the husband and states how long he had been gone. Each is a sign that a marriage had broken down years before any decree.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

The answer changes in 1842. New Hampshire narrowed dower earlier and further than most states, and it did so in two stages.

Dower is a widow's life estate in her late husband's land. She had the use of it for her lifetime, not ownership, and the land itself passed to the heirs.

From the Revised Statutes of 1842, dower attached only to land the husband still owned at his death⁴³. It reached no wild land. A widow was endowed only of land in a state of cultivation during the marriage, or of a wood or timber lot occupied with a farm the husband owned⁴⁴. Her share was measured by income, being enough land to yield a third of the yearly income of the whole⁴⁵.

Before 1842 the rule was wider:

• Under the province act of 1714, re-enacted in the same terms in 1791, a widow took her third of every parcel of which she was dowable at common law. That meant all the land her husband held at any time during the marriage⁴⁶.
• The act of 13 December 1804 cut back what counted. It confined dower to land in cultivation and to wood or timber lots kept with a farm. But it left dower attached to land the husband had sold. Where he parted with his title and afterwards died, his widow was endowed of a third of that land, valued as it stood when he parted with it⁴⁷.
• The conveyancing act of 10 February 1791 says the same thing from the other end. It saved the dower of any widow of a grantor who had not joined with her husband in his deed⁴⁸.

So for the half-century before 1842, a wife's signature on her husband's deed did real work. Its absence left her dower alive against the buyer.

One wrinkle is worth naming. The clause measuring dower by income kept reckoning the land as it stood when the husband "died or parted with his title," and that wording survived unchanged into the code of 1942⁴⁹. It is a rule for valuing land, not a second class of dowable land. The courts read it that way. In the century of decisions digested from 1816 to 1920 no widow recovered dower against a purchaser from her husband, and the digest heading that collects the ways dower could be lost names only elopement with an adulterer and the levy of an execution⁵⁰.

From 1842 the consequence for the records is immediate. Land a husband sold in his lifetime passed to the buyer without a dower claim his widow could assign against it. His deed carried his signature alone, and after 1842 a deed signed by a husband alone is the normal form. Dower was assigned by the probate court in one or more parcels⁵¹, so the dower record is a probate document that describes the widow's thirds on the ground.

What did require a wife's signature was the homestead:

• From the act of 1851 the family homestead of the head of each family, to the value of five hundred dollars, was exempt from attachment and from sale on execution for causes of action accruing after 1 January 1852⁵².
• No conveyance by the husband of the exempt property was valid unless the wife joined in the deed. The one exception was a mortgage given at the time of purchase for the purchase money⁵³.
• Later codes put it more broadly. No deed or mortgage by the owner alone affected the interest of the wife, widow, or children, and the deed of husband and wife together barred the homestead right⁵⁴.
• The right ran for the life of the wife or widow and the minority of the children⁵⁵.

Two other rules turn on a spouse's signature. From 1913, no conveyance, lease, or mortgage of household goods in use by a husband and wife in their household was valid unless the owner's husband or wife executed it too, so a chattel mortgage of the family furniture carries both names⁵⁶. And the signature could be dispensed with. From 1851 a husband or wife whose spouse had been insane for a year could petition the judge of probate for a license to convey land free of the other's rights, and a conveyance made under the license barred them⁵⁷. A deed with one signature and a probate license recited in it means the absent spouse was living but had been adjudged insane, and the petition file names them both.

So a wife's name on a deed dated after 1852 usually means the parcel was the family home. After 1842 her absence from a deed of other land carries no inference either way. Before 1842 her absence left a dower claim outstanding.

The husband's mirror-image right was curtesy, a widower's life interest in all his late wife's land. It arose only if a child had been born alive of the marriage. New Hampshire kept it as a common-law right through 1950⁵⁸. A widower holding a life estate in his late wife's farm while her children hold the title is holding by curtesy, and it means a child of that marriage was born alive.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or devise as an adult did. Conveying it was the constraint, and New Hampshire ran that through the probate court:

• A minor's land was sold under a license from the judge of probate.
• The guardian gave a fresh bond and took an oath before selling.
• The sale had to be made within two years of the license.
• The guardian executed the deed⁵⁹.

Where a New Hampshire deed conveys a child's land, the probate file holds the family. Own at any age; convey freely at 21.

Witnessing a deed

A witness of any age could serve. What mattered was competency, not age. The witness had to understand an oath and be able to relate what he had seen.

The requirements have been stable since the first state conveyancing act. The act of 10 February 1791 required a deed to be signed and sealed by the grantor, signed by two or more witnesses, acknowledged before a justice of the peace, and recorded at length in the registry of deeds for the county where the land lay⁶⁰. The Revised Statutes of 1842 carried the same requirements forward and added notaries and commissioners to the officials who could take the acknowledgment⁶¹. Recording is what makes the deed good against the world. Between the grantor and his heirs it stands unrecorded⁶².

The statute fixed the number of witnesses at two and left the question of who could serve to the common law. In practice witnesses were adults, and often kin or neighbors of the grantor. That makes the two names at the foot of a deed worth harvesting. A subscribing witness is one who signed the deed. He might have to prove it in court years later if the grantor died, went insane, refused to acknowledge it, or left the state⁶³. That proof is a second record made long after the sale.

Enslaved people and free people of color

Enslaved people appear in New Hampshire records as property, and the tax lists are where they can be counted. Estate inventories list them among the goods, and the rate acts rated them as items of estate:

• The act of 1770 set every enslaved man from 16 to 50 at sixteen shillings, and every enslaved woman in those ages at eight⁶⁴.
• The act of 1773 rated enslaved men from 16 to 45 at ten shillings and enslaved women at five⁶⁵.
• The state act of 12 June 1784 still rated them, men from 18 to 45 at ten shillings and women from 16 to 45 at five⁶⁶.

Because enslaved women were rated as well as enslaved men, both sexes appear in the colonial and early state invoices by age bracket.

Enslaved people had no legal capacity to own property. Anything in their possession belonged in law to the enslaver, and no New Hampshire statute of the period gave them capacity to hold, convey, or devise⁶⁷.

Two province acts of 1714 fell on people of color as persons rather than property. Both used the racial language of their day, and both were repealed in 1792:

• An act to prevent disorders in the night barred Native, Black, and mixed-race servants and enslaved people from being abroad after nine at night unless on a master's errand. Constables and householders could hold them until morning⁶⁸.
• An act against receiving stolen goods penalized anyone who bought or received money or goods from such a servant or enslaved person while suspecting them stolen. The buyer forfeited the value, and the servant or enslaved person was whipped⁶⁹.

Both generated justice-of-the-peace and quarter sessions records rather than property records.

New Hampshire passed no gradual-abolition act, so there is no manumission series to search. Slavery ended by attrition instead. The state rate act of 7 February 1789 drops enslaved people from the list of rateable estate altogether⁷⁰, and the Revised Statutes of 1842 and every later code carry no slave law. The practical marker of freedom in the record is a person's disappearance from the rateable-estate column and appearance as a poll or head of household.

The act of 1857 settled what the codes had left unsaid. Neither descent from a person of African blood, near or remote, nor color of skin was to disqualify anyone from becoming a citizen of the state or deprive them of a citizen's full rights. Any enslaved person brought into the state became free. Holding a person as a slave was made a felony, punishable by one to five years at hard labor⁷¹.

Free people of color could own land, and did. The chapters governing who may hold and convey land name no racial qualification, so free Black owners appear in the ordinary deed books and probate files rather than in a separate series⁶⁷. The same is true of Native sellers. The conveyancing act asked nothing of a deed from a Native grantor beyond the ordinary form of signing, sealing, two witnesses, acknowledgment, and recording, so such a deed sits in the county registry with the rest⁶⁰.

Inheritance

One set of rules for land and goods

A person who died without a will died intestate, and a statute divided the estate. New Hampshire ran land and personal property through the same rules. Real estate not devised descended in equal shares. Personal estate not bequeathed was distributed by decree of the judge once the administrator's account was settled: the widow's share first, then the residue in equal shares to the same people who would have taken the land⁷².

The decree of distribution is the probate document that names the whole family in one place.

The eldest son's double portion

The province rule came from the act of 14 May 1718. Its preamble explains why the land was divided among all the children rather than going to the eldest alone. Estates in these plantations consisted chiefly of lands subdued by the labor of the proprietors with the help of their children, and the younger children had generally served longest. The eldest son's double portion sat on top of that division rather than following from it⁷³.

Three further province rules matter:

• Where there were no sons, the daughters inherited as coparceners, meaning co-heirs holding together.
• Where land could not be divided without spoiling the whole, the judge could order it to the eldest son, or to another son on his refusal, on his paying the others their shares. A province-era estate may therefore produce bonds from one son to his siblings rather than a partition of the land.
• The division was made by five sufficient freeholders on oath, or any three of them, and their return describes the farm.

The double portion ended with the act of 3 February 1789. That act repealed the act of 1718 outright and made land descend in equal shares among the children and the representatives of those who had died⁷⁴.

The date of death is the test. An intestate who died in 1788 has an eldest son with a double share, and one who died in 1790 has children with equal shares. Where a division return does not add up on equal shares, check the date of death before assuming a missing heir.

Two further rules from the 1789 act ran for a century and a half:

• A child who died under 21 and unmarried passed his share from a parent to his brothers and sisters, to the exclusion of the other parent⁷⁵. That explains estates where a surviving mother takes nothing.
• Advancements counted against a child's share. These were land deeded for love or affection, or personal property charged in writing or delivered before witnesses bidden to take notice⁷⁶. A deed reciting love and affection is an advance on a share rather than a gift outside the estate, and it should turn up again in the settlement.

The widow's share

Under the act of 1789 the widow took one third of the surplus personal estate forever, or one half where her husband died without issue, in addition to her dower⁷⁷. The Revised Statutes of 1842 refined this. The shares turn on whether there were lineal descendants and whether there was a will.

Where she took a child's part, her share and each child's were equal. The fraction therefore counts the children: a widow taking one fifth means four children shared with her.

She could elect instead to take, including her dower, an amount not exceeding what her husband had received from her or in her right during the marriage⁸². That election is evidence she brought property to the marriage. Where a settlement had been made on her before the marriage, these rules did not apply at all⁸³, so an unusually small share should send you looking for a recorded marriage contract.

By the 1940s the figures had been rewritten in dollars. The widow took one third if issue survived; $5,000 plus half the remainder where there was a will and no issue; and $7,500 plus half the remainder where there was no will and no issue⁸⁴.

A surviving spouse had a second choice, and it changes what the deed books show. By giving up dower or curtesy and the homestead right, a widow or widower could take instead a share of the real estate outright. That was one third where issue survived, owned in fee rather than held for life⁸⁵. The election runs back to the General Laws of 1878, and the allowance section expressly counts a widow's allowance against it⁸⁶.

A widow who appears in the deed books selling land in her own name after her husband's death is therefore not necessarily an anomaly. She may have released dower and taken a third of the land outright, and the release will be in the probate file over her signature.

A widow could also be granted a reasonable allowance out of the personal estate for her present support. The judge then counted it against her distributive share, meaning her portion of the personal property, in the decree of distribution⁸⁷. It is a separate probate record, granted early in the administration.

Where her husband left a will she disliked, she could waive the provision made for her by a writing filed with the judge, taking her dower and distributive share instead⁸⁸. The waiver sits in the probate file over her signature.

Minors and guardians

A minor inherited immediately, and managing the inheritance fell to a guardian appointed by the judge of probate⁸⁹. A guardian was appointed where a minor had property to manage or had no parent to manage it. Where a child inherited nothing there is often no guardianship record at all.

The guardian had three duties at the outset:

• He gave bond with sureties, conditioned on a faithful discharge of the trust and a true account on oath⁹⁰.
• He gave public notice of the appointment⁹¹.
• He returned an inventory of the minor's estate⁹².

The age of choice was 14, for both sexes. Below that age the judge appointed. At 14 and above the minor could elect any suitable person, whom the judge then appointed, even if the minor was already under guardianship. Only where the minor neglected to nominate after being cited did the judge appoint as for a younger child⁹³.

The rule is as old as the state. The probate act of February 1789 empowered the judges to allow guardians chosen by minors of fourteen and upwards, and to appoint for those within that age⁹⁴. A guardianship record in which the child does the choosing is evidence the child had reached 14, which brackets a birth year.

Guardianship ended at 21. Every guardian continued until the minor reached 21 or was discharged according to law⁹⁵, and the bond ran to accounting at that point.

That final account is one of the most valuable documents in New Hampshire genealogy. It dates the minor's majority, and therefore approximates a birth year. It frequently gives a female minor's married surname, because the receipt is signed in the name she then bore.

Two rules relocate a guardianship record:

• A married woman appointed guardian had the same powers and duties as any other⁹⁶. But if a female guardian married, the marriage extinguished the trust outright under the Revised Statutes⁹⁷, and by the 1940s the judge could revoke it at his discretion⁹⁸. A guardian replaced a few months into the term may be a widow who remarried, and the successor's appointment dates the marriage.
• By the twentieth century the father and mother of an unmarried minor were joint guardians. On the death of either, the survivor became sole guardian of the child's person⁹⁹.

Children born outside marriage

At common law a child born outside marriage was filius nullius, "nobody's child," and could inherit from no one.

New Hampshire gave the child the mother's line by statute. The mother and her heirs are the child's heirs in the ascending and collateral lines, and the child and its issue are the heirs of the mother¹⁰⁰. That rule runs from the Revised Statutes of 1842 through every later code.

Inheritance from the father came through the parents' later marriage. Where the parents of children born before marriage afterwards married and recognized them as their own, the children were legitimate and inherited equally with the other children. An act of 1860 made this the rule¹⁰¹. A single marriage can turn a child born years earlier into a legitimate heir. Where an estate division includes a child whose birth predates the parents' marriage, the marriage record is the document that makes the division lawful.

Where paternity was contested it was settled in a proceeding the statutes called a bastardy case, and the file names the father:

• A pregnant woman complained in writing under oath to a justice of the peace against the man she charged, and the justice issued a warrant¹⁰².
• The issue was tried in court, by jury if either party asked, as chargeable or not chargeable¹⁰³.
• A man found chargeable was ordered to pay a reasonable sum to the mother, or to the selectmen of the town liable for the child's maintenance¹⁰⁴.
• Where the mother refused to prosecute, the town could bring the complaint in its own name within a year of the birth¹⁰⁵. A town-brought case therefore dates the birth to within twelve months.

Making a will

The age to make a will was 21, and it had been since the first state statute on the subject. The act of 3 February 1789 gave every person lawfully seized of land, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards and of sane mind, the power to devise and dispose of it by last will in writing¹⁰⁶.

The Revised Statutes of 1842 restated the same age¹⁰⁷, and a companion section repeated it as a condition of passing real estate¹⁰⁸. Those sections carried unchanged through the Compiled Statutes of 1854 and the General Laws of 1878¹⁰⁹. An act of 1923 added married persons under that age, so from then on a married minor could make a will at any age. The same act provided that "every person" in the section included a married woman¹¹⁰.

A New Hampshire will needed three credible witnesses, and that requirement is older than the state:

• The English Statute of Frauds required a devise of land to be attested and subscribed by three or four credible witnesses. It governed in the province, and a declaratory act of 1751 settling who counted as a legal witness was extended to the American colonies. The state act on the attestation of wills, passed 16 February 1791, re-enacted its provisions¹¹¹.
• The act of 3 February 1789 required a devise to be in writing, sealed by the party devising, signed by him or by someone in his presence at his express direction, and attested and subscribed in his presence by three or more credible witnesses¹⁰⁶.
• The Revised Statutes of 1842 carried those requirements forward and added the testator's age and sound mind as express conditions¹¹².
• The seal was required until 1887, when an act struck the words "and sealed" and made every will not executed under seal as effectual as though sealed¹¹³. The three-witness requirement stood.

A will of this period with fewer than three witnesses never passed the estate. Look for an administration rather than a probate.

Executors and witnesses to a will

A witness to a will could be of any age. What mattered was that the witness gained nothing under it. A beneficial devise or legacy to a subscribing witness was void as to that witness and those claiming under him, unless there were three other subscribing witnesses. In that case the gift stood and he was competent. A provision for the payment of a debt was neither void nor a disqualification¹¹⁴.

A legatee among the three witnesses means the legacy failed. It also tells you the drafter thought that person close enough to the family to leave them something.

An executor or executrix had to be of full age, meaning 21. No person under age, and no person the judge deemed incapable, could be appointed to administer an estate¹¹⁵.

Where a minor was named executor, the court granted administration to someone else. When the minor came of age and applied, administration of the estate not already administered was granted to him and the earlier grant revoked. Where the earlier grant had gone to a co-executor, the minor became a joint executor instead¹¹⁶. An administration revoked and regranted some years after a testator's death, to a person named in the will, marks that person's twenty-first birthday.

Administration otherwise went in a fixed order: to the executor named in the will, then the widow or next of kin or their nominee, then a devisee or creditor, then anyone the judge thought proper¹¹⁷. Because the widow and next of kin ranked ahead of creditors, an administration granted to a creditor usually means the family renounced. The renunciation is a signed paper in the file.

If an executrix or administratrix married, the marriage extinguished the trust under the Revised Statutes¹¹⁸. By the 1940s she continued in it¹¹⁹.

Taxation

What was taxed

Two taxes fell on individuals. The poll or head tax was a capitation, a flat charge on a person rather than on property. It is the prize for genealogy, because it lists people who owned nothing. That makes the annual invoices into census substitutes.

The property tax reached real estate improved and unimproved, stock in public funds and corporations, money on hand or at interest, stock in trade, carriages worth more than fifty dollars, horses and neat cattle over eighteen months, and sheep over six months¹²⁰.

Everything runs through the annual invoice. The selectmen of each town took it in April, covering all the polls and property liable to be taxed in the town on the first day of that month¹²¹. Every person was taxed in the town where he was an inhabitant or resident on 1 April¹²², and a man who moved after that date still paid that year in the town he left¹²³.

A New Hampshire tax list therefore places a man on a single precise date. A man appearing on two towns' lists in successive years moved between the two Aprils.

Who was a poll and at what age

The province rate acts and, after independence, the annual valuation acts fixed the poll ages¹²⁴:

Two things fall out of that table. A young man's first appearance on a colonial or early state list brackets his eighteenth birthday, and from the Revised Statutes of 1842 it brackets his twenty-first. From 1789, when the upper limit of 70 first appears, his last appearance brackets his seventieth. The province acts set no upper age, so a man dropping off a pre-1789 list left the town, died, or was exempted rather than aging out.

Because enslaved men and women were both rated in the province and early state lists while free women were not, the presence of women in a household's rating is itself information.

The militia exemption and who could not use it

The militia exemption is the one to watch, because it did most of the work of the later age change.

The valuation acts rated male polls from 18 to 70 but exempted men between 18 and 21 who were enrolled in the militia. The exemption was already in place in the valuation act of 26 December 1798, and the acts of 1803, 1812, 1830, and 1833 each carried it forward¹²⁵. The militia act made the same point from the other side. Every citizen enrolled and provided with arms was exempt from a poll tax while under 21¹²⁶. Militia enrollment was the ordinary condition of a young man in those years.

In practice, then, a white man commonly first appears on a New Hampshire tax list at 21 even before 1842. The Revised Statutes of 1842 repealed the act of 1833 and wrote that practice into the rule.

The exemption was not open to everyone. The militia act enrolled only every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between 16 and 40¹²⁷. A free Black man could not enroll, so he could not claim the exemption that went with enrollment. He was taxable as a poll from 18, while his white neighbors of the same age were not.

That has a direct consequence for research. Between 1798 and 1842, a young Black man appears on the invoice about three years earlier in life than a young white man of the same age. A first appearance at 18 rather than 21 is a real difference, and it should not be read as evidence that he was older than he was.

Why a man leaves the tax list

A man could leave the poll list while alive and still resident:

• The valuation acts of 1798, 1803, and 1812 exempted, besides militia men aged 18 to 21, ordained ministers, the president, professors, tutors, and students of colleges, paupers, and idiots. The acts of 1830 and 1833 kept only the militia men, paupers, and idiots¹²⁸.
• The Revised Statutes of 1842 kept the exemption for paupers and insane persons¹²⁹.
• Residence in a town merely to obtain an education at a literary institution did not make a student taxable there¹³⁰, so a young man can disappear from his college town and reappear on his father's list.

Otherwise the usual explanations are his seventieth birthday, or a move on the wrong side of 1 April.

Courts

Jury service

Jurors had to be 21, the common-law age of majority. The jury statutes named no age at all. The selectmen were simply to list the persons they judged best qualified, and the age came from the general rule of majority¹³¹.

The property qualification changed, and it tells you what kind of man sat on the jury that heard your ancestor's case¹³²:

Where your ancestor sat on a New Hampshire jury before 1842 he owned property, and the tax list of that year will show it. After 1842 jury service proves only that the selectmen thought well of him.

The freehold applied to the town's list, meaning the regular panel. A talesman was a bystander summoned on the spot to fill out a short jury. He was returned by the sheriff from the persons present under the court's direction, and was held to no freehold of his own¹³³.

Some men were exempt and their names kept off the lists. These were the governor, secretary, and treasurer of the state, judges and clerks of courts, registers of probate and of deeds, sheriffs and their deputies, counsellors and attorneys at law, ordained ministers, and practicing physicians and surgeons¹³⁴. An adult man absent from a town's jury list may be one of these.

Women as jurors

The jury statutes named no sex and no race, and they were read as male.

Women became eligible in 1947, on terms that leave their own record. The selectmen were to list such men and women as they judged best qualified. But a woman's name was not to be placed on the list unless she had first appeared before them and registered for jury service, and the selectmen kept a permanent registration book of the women who did¹³⁵.

A woman on a New Hampshire jury list after 1947 volunteered, and that registration book is a town record.

Criminal responsibility

Before 1907 no New Hampshire statute fixed an age of criminal responsibility, so the common law received at the separation supplied the rule¹³⁶:

• Under 7 — a child was legally incapable of committing a crime.
• 7 to 14 — presumed incapable of wrong, a presumption the State could rebut by proving the child knew right from wrong.
• 14 and over — full criminal responsibility, tried and punished as an adult.

From 1907 a statute changed the setting, though not the underlying rule. New Hampshire's first juvenile court act applied only to children under seventeen¹³⁷. Police and justice courts took original jurisdiction¹³⁸. The court designated a session for children, separate from the criminal session and so far as practicable held in a different room. A separate docket was kept, no minor was present unless necessary, and no newspaper was permitted to publish the proceedings¹³⁹. Proceedings began by a petition in writing, verified by affidavit¹⁴⁰. A child could still be dealt with under the ordinary criminal law where the offense warranted it¹⁴¹.

The practical effect is this. From 1907 a child under 17 may have a file on a separate docket kept by the police or justice court, and because publication was forbidden the newspapers do not carry the case. The two records run side by side rather than one replacing the other, so both should be searched.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, if he or she understood the obligation of an oath and could give a rational account of what they had seen. The evidence chapter set no age at all. It left age to the judge, who decided witness by witness, and children did testify¹⁴².

The grounds the statutes named for keeping a witness off the stand were religious opinion, party status, the death of the other party to the matter in issue, marital confidence, and prior conviction¹⁴³. Race and sex were not among them. Women were competent witnesses throughout the period, and no New Hampshire statute of this period disqualified a witness on account of race¹⁴⁴.

Three statutes reshaped who could take the stand, and each explains what you will find in the files:

• Husband and wife are competent witnesses for or against each other, whether joined as parties or not, in all cases both civil and criminal¹⁴⁵. The exception covers any statement, conversation, letter, or communication between them, and any examination the court thought would violate marital confidence¹⁴⁶. The rule survived into the modern code in the same form¹⁴⁷. A New Hampshire case file from the 1870s onward may therefore contain a wife's testimony about her husband's affairs, which earlier files will not.
• In the trial of a criminal charge the accused is a competent witness at his own request, but not otherwise¹⁴⁸. No inference of guilt follows from his silence, and the prosecution may not comment on it¹⁴⁹.
• No person is incompetent to testify because he has been convicted of an infamous crime, though the record of the conviction may be used to affect his credit¹⁵⁰.

Sources and Where to Verify

Constitutions

• New Hampshire Constitution, pt. 2, art. 90 (reception of the province, colony, and state laws). Printed in the front matter of the General Laws of 1878. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00wigggoog
• New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (current). Each section is printed with its full citation chain, which is the fastest route backward from a modern rule. New Hampshire General Court. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/indexes/default.aspx

Codes and Compilations

• The Laws of the State of New-Hampshire. Exeter, N.H.: Printed by C. Norris & Co. for the State, 1815. The last compilation before the Revised Statutes, and the volume behind most of the pre-1842 statements in this guide. The act declaring the mode of conveyance by deed of 10 February 1791 is at 190–94; the act for the settling of testate estates of 3 February 1789 at 198–99; the act relative to the attestation of wills of 16 February 1791 at 203–05; the militia act at 291–97; the valuation act of 1 December 1812 at 263–64; and the repealed valuation acts of 26 December 1798 and 24 December 1803 in the appendix at 548–51. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew00newh
• The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842. Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843. The essential nineteenth-century volume. Ch. 39 (persons and property liable to taxation), ch. 40 (where and to whom taxed), ch. 41 (the annual invoice), ch. 68 (maintenance of bastard children), ch. 129 (estates in real property, including aliens), ch. 130 (conveyance of real estate), ch. 147 (marriage), ch. 149 (husband and wife, including the cohabitation section), ch. 150 (guardian and minor), ch. 156 (wills), ch. 158 (administration), ch. 165 (widow's allowance, dower and distributive share), ch. 166 (descent and distribution), ch. 176 (juries), ch. 188 (views and evidence). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh
• The Compiled Statutes of the State of New Hampshire. Second edition. Concord: G. Parker Lyon, 1854. Cited by the New Hampshire Law Library as C.S. 1853. Each chapter is headed with the acts it was compiled from, which is how the 1845, 1846, and 1851 acts are traced. Ch. 156 (marriage), ch. 158 (husband and wife), ch. 161 (judges of probate), ch. 165 (wills), ch. 175 (dower and distributive shares), ch. 176 (descent), ch. 196 (homestead exemption, identical with ch. 1089, Laws of 1851). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledstatute00hampgoog
• The General Statutes of the State of New-Hampshire. Manchester: J. B. Clarke, State Printer, 1867. The compilation between the General Laws and the Compiled Statutes, named throughout the citation chains. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433009060181
• The General Laws of the State of New Hampshire. Manchester: J. B. Clarke, State Printer, 1878. Carries marginal derivation citations beside every section, back through the General Statutes, Compiled Statutes, Revised Statutes, and the originating session laws. Ch. 84 (maintenance of bastard children), ch. 135 (conveyance of real estate), ch. 138 (homestead right), ch. 180 (marriages), ch. 183 (husband and wife), ch. 193 (wills), ch. 195 (administration), ch. 202 (dower and distributive share), ch. 203 (descent), ch. 213 (jurors), ch. 228 (witnesses). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00wigggoog
• The Public Statutes of the State of New Hampshire. Concord: J. B. Clarke, 1891. A second edition followed in 1901. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=DbkZAAAAYAAJ
• The Public Laws of the State of New Hampshire, to Which Is Prefixed the Constitution of New Hampshire, with a General Index. 2 vols. Manchester, N.H.: Printed by the Clarke Press, 1925. Held in print by the New Hampshire Law Library and available there on subscription; sections can also be traced through the chains printed with the current Revised Statutes Annotated.
• The Revised Laws of the State of New Hampshire, to Which Is Prefixed the Constitution of New Hampshire, with a General Index. 3 vols. Concord, N.H.: Printed by the Rumford Press, 1942. The last compilation before the Revised Statutes Annotated, and the code the Women's Bureau digest cites throughout. Held in print by the New Hampshire Law Library and available there on subscription.

Session Laws and Province Records

• Batchellor, Albert Stillman, ed. Laws of New Hampshire, Including Public and Private Acts and Resolves and the Royal Commissions and Instructions. Volume One, Province Period 1679–1702. Manchester, N.H.: The John B. Clarke Company, 1904. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi00newh
• Batchellor, Albert Stillman, ed. Laws of New Hampshire. Volume Two, Province Period 1702–1745. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1913. The acts of 15 May 1714 against receiving stolen goods (ch. 9, at 128–29), on incestuous marriages (ch. 5, at 124–26), on the speedy assignment of dower (ch. 14, at 135–38), to prevent disorders in the night (ch. 16, at 138–39), and concerning marriages, births and burials (ch. 23, at 144–46); and the act for the settlement and distribution of the estates of intestates of 14 May 1718 (ch. 28, at 295–98). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi170245newh
• Metcalf, Henry Harrison, ed. Laws of New Hampshire. Volume Three, Province Period 1745–1774. Bristol, N.H.: Musgrove Printing House, 1915. The act dividing the province into counties of 29 April 1769 (ch. 9, at 524) and the rate acts of 12 April 1770 (ch. 3, at 533–34) and 30 January 1773 (ch. 11, at 585–86). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi03newh
• Metcalf, Henry Harrison, ed. Laws of New Hampshire. Volume Four, Revolutionary Period 1776–1784. Bristol, N.H.: Musgrove Printing House, 1916. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi04newh
• Metcalf, Henry Harrison, ed. Laws of New Hampshire. Volume Five, First Constitutional Period 1784–1792. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1916. The rate act of 12 June 1784 (at 9–10); the act for the settling of testate estates of 3 February 1789 (at 380–84); the act ordering the descent of intestate estates of 3 February 1789 (ch. 42, at 384–88) and the companion probate act (at 388–95); the rate act of 7 February 1789 (ch. 64, at 606–07); and the act for the assignment of dower of 9 February 1791 (ch. 54, at 728). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi05newh
• Laws of New Hampshire. Volumes Six through Ten, Second Constitutional Period 1792–1835. Edited and published under the direction of the Secretary of State. Concord, N.H.: Evans Printing Co., 1918–1922. The successive valuation acts that fixed the poll tax between 1798 and 1842 are here, each with the editors' note of what it repealed and what repealed it: vol. 7 (1801–1811), https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi07newh; vol. 8 (1811–1820), https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi08newh; vol. 10 (1829–1835), https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi10newh
• Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed June Session, 1857. Concord: John F. Brown, 1857. Ch. 1965, "An Act to secure freedom and the rights of citizenship to persons in this State," at 1876–77. New Hampshire session volumes between 1836 and 1871 are not on Internet Archive or in the University of New Hampshire repository; the New Hampshire Law Library, the State Library, and the State Archives hold the print volume, and the run is on HeinOnline. The text of §§ 1–3 is also reproduced in the Juneteenth proclamation issued by the City of Dover, https://www.dover.nh.gov/Assets/government/boards-commissions/city-council/proclamations/Juneteenth%20Day_2022.06.08.pdf
• Laws of the State of New Hampshire (session laws). Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, by year. Complete on Internet Archive from 1872 under parallel identifiers. The volumes relied on here are 1876 (ch. 32, married women), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1876newh; 1877 (ch. 22, explanatory act), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1877newh; 1887 (ch. 64, wills), filed on Internet Archive under an identifier labeled 1889, https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1889newh; 1899 (ch. 16, release of curtesy), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1899newh; 1907 (ch. 80, marriage of minors, and ch. 125, dependent, neglected and delinquent children), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1907newh; 1913 (ch. 200, household goods), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1913newh; 1923 (ch. 10, wills, and ch. 108, age of consent), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1923newh; 1937 (ch. 186, marriage), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1937newh; and 1947 (ch. 95, qualifications for jury service), https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1947newh. The same run is also available from the University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository, https://scholars.unh.edu/lawsnh/

Court Cases

• Cogswell v. Tibbetts. 3 N.H. 41 (1824). Elopement with an adulterer forfeits dower.
• Davis v. Walker. 42 N.H. 482 (1861). Cited in the margin of the dower section of the General Laws of 1878.
• Drew v. Munsey. Smith (N.H.) 317 (1814). Dower lost by the levy of an execution for the husband's debts.
• Dunbarton v. Franklin. 19 N.H. 257 (1848). Solemnization required for a valid marriage.
• Emmons v. Murray. 16 N.H. 385 (1844). A minor's deed is voidable, not void.
• Fisk v. Eastman. 5 N.H. 240 (1830). Cited in the margin of the dower section of the General Laws of 1878.
• Gordon v. Gordon. 54 N.H. 152 (1873). Dower not barred by a reconveyance unless the widow released it by her own act.
• Johnson v. Perley. 2 N.H. 56 (1819). What land was in a "state of cultivation" under the act of 1804.
• Londonderry v. Chester. 2 N.H. 268 (1820). Marriage must be solemnized before an official who can certify it.
• Moore v. Esty. 5 N.H. 479 (1831). Cited in the margin of the dower section of the General Laws of 1878.
• Pinkham v. Gear. 3 N.H. 163 (1825). Cited in the margin of the dower section of the General Laws of 1878.
• Robbins v. Eaton. 10 N.H. 561 (1840). A minor may confirm or avoid his deed at majority.
• Russ v. Perry. 49 N.H. 547 (1870). Cited in the margin of the dower section of the General Laws of 1878.
• State v. Gerry. 68 N.H. 495 (1896). Cited by the editors of the province laws on the acts of 1714.
• State v. Jackson. 69 N.H. 511 (1898). The prohibited degrees of kinship.
• White v. White. 77 N.H. 26 (1913). Parents as joint guardians of an unmarried minor.
• Wooldridge v. Lavoie. 79 N.H. 21 (1918). A minor's liability for necessaries.

Secondary and Reference Works

• Hart, Hastings H., ed. Juvenile Court Laws in the United States: A Summary by States. New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1910. Summarizes New Hampshire's act of 1907, ch. 125, section by section. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/juvenilecourtlaw00hart
• Hening, Crawford D. Digest of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire from the Year 1816 to 1920, Inclusive. 2 vols. Concord, N.H.: The Governor and Council, 1926. Every reported New Hampshire decision, digested by subject; dower is at 1:816–21 under Husband and Wife III-5, and infancy at 1:1000–04. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044115474348
• Morrison, Charles R. The New-Hampshire Probate Law and Directory, Containing the General Laws of 1878 and Acts Since Passed, Forms of Bonds, Deeds, Wills. Concord, N.H.: J. B. Sanborn, 1884. A period practitioner's guide to probate procedure and the documents it generated, including guardians' accounts and dower assignments. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/newhampshireprob0000unse
• Morrison, Charles R. New Hampshire Town Officer: Containing the General Laws of 1878 and Acts Since Passed, Relating to Towns. Concord, N.H.: J. B. Sanborn, 1886. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/newhampshiretown00morr
• Morrison, Charles R. The Town Officer; with Directions, Forms, Decisions and Statutes, Adapted to the General Statutes of New Hampshire. Concord: B. W. Sanborn & Co., 1868. The selectmen's duties on the annual invoice and the jury list, with the forms used. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/townofficerwithd00morr
• New Hampshire Law Library. "Compiling a New Hampshire Legislative History: Historical Statutory Codes & Compilations." Lists every New Hampshire compilation from 1805 to 1955, with links to those digitized, and explains the form the source notes take in each. https://courts-state-nh-us.libguides.com/c.php?g=1075556&p=7834538
• New Hampshire. Probate Court. Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, Volume II, 1718–1740. State Papers Series, vol. 32. New York: D. McKay Co., 1914. The province-wide probate series that precedes the county courts, printed in full. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/probaterecordsof1914newh
• Richardson, William M. The New-Hampshire Town Officer. Concord: Jacob B. Moore, 1829. Reprints the tax and jury acts in force before the Revised Statutes, including the valuation act that set the poll at 18 to 70 with the militia exemption for men 18 to 21. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/newhampshiretow00richgoog
• U.S. Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for New Hampshire. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 157-28 (Revised). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949. A digest of New Hampshire law on majority, minors' contracts, married women's property, homestead, dower, curtesy, wills, intestacy, guardianship, marriage, illegitimacy, and jury service, with citations to the Revised Laws of 1942 and the session laws of 1947. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-28-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf

Citations

1. New Hampshire Constitution, pt. 2, art. 90, printed in the front matter of The General Laws of the State of New Hampshire (Manchester: J. B. Clarke, State Printer, 1878); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00wigggoog : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
2. The Compiled Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, 2nd ed. (Concord: G. Parker Lyon, 1854), ch. 161, §§ 3–4; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/compiledstatute00hampgoog : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
3. Act of 29 April 1769, ch. 9, "An Act For Dividing this Province into Counties, and for the more Easy Administration of Justice," confirmed 19 March 1771 and repealed 20 June 1792; Henry Harrison Metcalf, ed., Laws of New Hampshire, vol. 3, Province Period 1745–1774 (Bristol, N.H.: Musgrove Printing House, 1915), 3:524; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi03newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
4. No New Hampshire statute fixed the age of majority; the common-law age governed for want of one. U.S. Women's Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for New Hampshire, Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 157-28 (Revised) (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949), No. 1; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-28-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
5. Robbins v. Eaton, 10 N.H. 561 (1840); Emmons v. Murray, 16 N.H. 385 (1844). ↩ ↩
6. Wooldridge v. Lavoie, 79 N.H. 21 (1918); The Revised Laws of the State of New Hampshire (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1942), ch. 200, § 2 (II). ↩
7. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 149, § 10; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried into Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 158, § 10, General Statutes (1867), ch. 164, § 11, General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 10, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 340, § 4. The 1842 text covers the wife alone. The husband's matching right to release curtesy under age entered by Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1899 (Manchester, N.H.: Arthur R. Clarke, Public Printer, 1899), ch. 16, § 1, approved 28 February 1899, which rewrote Public Statutes (1891), ch. 176, § 3; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1899newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
8. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 147, § 16, p. 292; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
9. Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156, § 13; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 14, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 14. ↩
10. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1907 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1907), ch. 80, § 1, p. 81; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1907newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried into Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 4, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 4, now RSA 457:4. ↩
11. Laws of 1907, ch. 80, § 2, p. 81; carried into Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 5, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 5. ↩
12. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1923 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1923), ch. 108, § 1, p. 128, approved 4 May 1923, amending Laws of 1907, ch. 80, § 2 — twenty in place of eighteen for the male, eighteen in place of sixteen for the female, and the annulment suit extended to a parent or guardian; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1923newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
13. Laws of 1907, ch. 80, § 3, p. 81; carried into Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 6, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 6. ↩
14. Laws of 1907, ch. 80, §§ 4–5, pp. 82–83; carried into Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, §§ 8–9, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, §§ 8–9. ↩
15. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 5, "An Act To Prevent Incestuous Marriages," repealed 20 June 1792; Albert Stillman Batchellor, ed., Laws of New Hampshire, vol. 2, Province Period 1702–1745 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1913), 2:124–26; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi170245newh : accessed 10 August 2026); and see State v. Jackson, 69 N.H. 511, 517 (1898). ↩
16. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, §§ 1–3, pp. 288–89. ↩
17. Laws of 1869, ch. 9, § 2, amending the rule carried from Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, § 2, through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156, § 2, and General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 2, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 2, and thence The Public Statutes of the State of New Hampshire (Concord: J. B. Clarke, 1891), ch. 174, § 2; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=DbkZAAAAYAAJ : accessed 10 August 2026); and thence Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 2, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 2. ↩
18. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 10. ↩
19. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1937 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1937), ch. 186, §§ 1–3, "An Act Relating to Marriage," approved 12 August 1937 and taking effect 1 October 1938, adding §§ 22-a and 22-b to Public Laws (1925), ch. 286; § 22-b provides that the certificate filed with the city or town clerk is not part of the marriage record but a confidential report; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1937newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, §§ 23–25. ↩
20. The impediments are those named in the marriage chapters throughout, none of which mentions race: Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147; Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156; General Statutes (1867), ch. 161; General Laws of 1878, ch. 180; Public Statutes (1891), ch. 174; Public Laws (1925), ch. 286; Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338. No marriage chapter in any New Hampshire code from the province act of 1714 forward makes race an impediment, and none of the session laws amending them adds one. ↩
21. Dunbarton v. Franklin, 19 N.H. 257, 265 (1848), approving Londonderry v. Chester, 2 N.H. 268 (1820). ↩
22. Laws of 1854, ch. 1518, §§ 1–3, replacing Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, §§ 4–5; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, §§ 4–6, General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, §§ 4–6, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, §§ 22–23, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, §§ 22, 26. ↩
23. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 23, "An Act concerning Marriages, Births and Burials," repealed 20 June 1792; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:144–46. ↩
24. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, § 15, p. 292; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156, § 12, General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 13, General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 13, Public Statutes (1891), ch. 174, § 12, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 33, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 36. ↩
25. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, § 12; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156, § 9, Laws of 1854, ch. 1518, § 5, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 8, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 34. ↩
26. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 23; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:144–46. ↩
27. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, § 6, p. 289. ↩
28. Laws of 1861, ch. 2484, § 1, and Laws of 1877, ch. 57, § 1; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 9, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 9, into Public Statutes (1891), ch. 174, § 8, Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 28, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 31. ↩
29. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 147, § 8; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 156, § 8, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 7, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 37. ↩
30. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 149, § 11, p. 297; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 158, § 19, General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 16, General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 16, Public Statutes (1891), ch. 174, § 15, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 36, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 39, now RSA 457:39. ↩
31. General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 17; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 17, and thence Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 40. ↩
32. General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 18; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 18, and thence Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 41. ↩
33. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 129, § 4; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 121, § 16, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 135, § 16. ↩
34. General Laws of 1878, ch. 135, § 17. ↩
35. Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 158, § 15, headed "Married women to sue and be sued." The chapter is compiled from ch. 149 of the Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 236 of the Laws of 1845, and ch. 327 of the Laws of 1846, and prints this section as Laws of 1846, ch. 327, § 4. The powers reached only property held to her separate use under §§ 12–14. ↩
36. Laws of 1860, ch. 2342, § 1, as amended by Laws of 1865, ch. 4080, § 1; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 164, § 1, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 340, §§ 1–2. ↩
37. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed June Session, 1876 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1876), ch. 32, § 1, "An Act to Remove the Disabilities of Married Women," approved 18 July 1876; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1876newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 12. ↩
38. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed June Session, 1877 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1877), ch. 22, § 1, "An Act Explanatory of an Act Passed June Session, 1876," approved 10 July 1877; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1877newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
39. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 149, §§ 1, 3; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 158, §§ 1, 3, and General Statutes (1867), ch. 164, § 2, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 2. ↩
40. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 149, § 2; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 3. ↩
41. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 149, §§ 4–7; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, §§ 4–7. ↩
42. General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, § 14. ↩
43. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 3; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 175, § 3, General Statutes (1867), ch. 183, § 2, General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 2, Public Statutes (1891), ch. 195, § 3, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 306, § 3, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, § 3, now RSA 560:3. ↩
44. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 4; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 175, § 4, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 3. ↩
45. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 5; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 4. ↩
46. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 14, "An Act ffor The Convenient and Speedy Assignement of Dower," giving the widow her third part in all houses, lands, tenements and hereditaments whereof she is dowable at the common law; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:135–38. The province acts were swept away by the general repealing act of 20 June 1792, but this one had already been re-enacted in the same terms by the act of 9 February 1791; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, vol. 5, First Constitutional Period 1784–1792 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1916), 5:728; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi05newh : accessed 10 August 2026). The rule therefore ran without a break. The courts stated the test as land of which the husband was seized during coverture: Johnson v. Perley, 2 N.H. 56 (1819). ↩
47. "An Act relating to Dower," passed 13 December 1804, §§ 1–2, in The Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (Exeter, N.H.: C. Norris & Co. for the State, 1815), 190; § 1 confines dower to land in a state of cultivation during the husband's seizin, or used or kept as a wood or timber lot appurtenant to a farm; § 2 endows the widow of a third in value of cultivated land the husband parted with in his lifetime, taken at the value it stood at when he parted with it; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
48. "An Act declaring the mode of conveyance by Deed," passed 10 February 1791, § 5, in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 192, closing with the proviso marginally headed "Not to bar dower." ↩
49. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 5, endows the widow of so much land as will yield a yearly income equal to a third of the income of the whole, reckoned as at the time the husband died or parted with his title; the same words carried unchanged into Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 175, § 5, General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 4, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, § 5. ↩
50. The dower decisions are collected in Crawford D. Hening, Digest of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire from the Year 1816 to 1920, Inclusive, 2 vols. (Concord, N.H.: The Governor and Council, 1926), 1:816–21, under Husband and Wife III-5, "Dower"; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044115474348 : accessed 10 August 2026). The subhead on forfeiture, release, and waiver collects only two rules — elopement with an adulterer, Cogswell v. Tibbetts, 3 N.H. 41 (1824), and the levy of an execution for the husband's debts, Drew v. Munsey, Smith 317 (1814) — and carries no entry for release by joining in a husband's deed. No decision in the century the digest covers holds that a widow could recover dower against a purchaser from her husband; Gordon v. Gordon, 54 N.H. 152 (1873), reaches only land reconveyed on a parol condition. The marginal citations printed beside General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 2 are these cases together with Pinkham v. Gear, 3 N.H. 163 (1825), Fisk v. Eastman, 5 N.H. 240 (1830), Moore v. Esty, 5 N.H. 479 (1831), Davis v. Walker, 42 N.H. 482 (1861), and Russ v. Perry, 49 N.H. 547 (1870). ↩
51. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, §§ 3, 6. ↩
52. Laws of 1851, ch. 1089, § 1, printed as Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 196, § 1. ↩
53. Laws of 1851, ch. 1089, § 6; Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 196, § 6. ↩
54. General Laws of 1878, ch. 138, §§ 2–3. ↩
55. General Laws of 1878, ch. 138, § 1; Revised Laws (1942), ch. 260, §§ 1–3, 5. ↩
56. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1913 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1913), ch. 200, "An Act Relative to the Conveyance of Household Goods," approved 21 May 1913, §§ 1–2; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1913newh : accessed 10 August 2026); carried into Public Laws (1925), ch. 288, § 8, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 340, § 8. ↩
57. Laws of 1851, ch. 1097, §§ 1–2, printed as Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 174, §§ 1–2; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 164, §§ 18–19, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 183, §§ 16–17, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 340, §§ 6–7. ↩
58. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, § 9; and see Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: New Hampshire, No. 15. ↩
59. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, §§ 22–27. ↩
60. "An Act declaring the mode of conveyance by Deed," passed 10 February 1791, § 4, in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 191–92: a deed signed and sealed by the grantor, "signed by two or more witnesses," acknowledged before a justice of the peace, and recorded at length in the registry of deeds of the county where the land lies is valid to pass the land; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩ ↩
61. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 130, § 3; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 136, § 3, and General Statutes (1867), ch. 121, § 3, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 135, § 3. ↩
62. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 130, § 4; carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 135, § 4. ↩
63. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 130, §§ 8–10; and see the corresponding proviso to the act of 10 February 1791, § 4, in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 191–92. ↩
64. Act of 12 April 1770, ch. 3, "An Act to Establish an Equitable Method of Making Rates and Taxes on the Polls and Estates within the Province, As Also for Ascertaining who are Legal Voters in Town and Parish Meetings"; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 3:533–34. ↩
65. Act of 30 January 1773, ch. 11, to the same title; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 3:585–86. ↩
66. Act of 12 June 1784, "An Act to establish an equitable method of making Rates and taxes and determining who shall be legal voters in Town and Parish affairs"; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, vol. 5, First Constitutional Period 1784–1792 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1916), 5:9–10; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofnewhampshi05newh : accessed 10 August 2026). Repealed by the act of 7 February 1789. ↩
67. The chapters governing who may hold and convey land name no racial qualification: Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 129 (estates in real property) and ch. 130 (conveyance of real estate); carried into General Laws of 1878, ch. 135, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 259. ↩ ↩
68. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 16, "An Act To Prevent Disorders in the Night," repealed 20 June 1792; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:138–39. The act uses the racial terms of its day. See State v. Gerry, 68 N.H. 495, 510 (1896). ↩
69. Act of 15 May 1714, ch. 9, "An Act against Receiving of Stolen Goods," repealed 20 June 1792; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:128–29. The act uses the racial terms of its day. See State v. Gerry, 68 N.H. 495, 510 (1896). ↩
70. Act of 7 February 1789, ch. 64, "An Act to establish an equitable method of making Rates and taxes"; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:606–07. The list of rateable estate runs from male polls 18 to 70 through livestock, land, mills, and stock in trade, and carries no class of slaves. ↩
71. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed June Session, 1857 (Concord: John F. Brown, 1857), ch. 1965, §§ 1–4, "An Act to secure freedom and the rights of citizenship to persons in this State," at 1876–77, approved 26 June 1857. The New Hampshire Law Library, the State Library, and the State Archives hold the print volume, and the run is on HeinOnline; no free digital copy of this volume is available. Section 3 fixes the penalty at hard labor for not less than one nor more than five years, and § 4 provides that ch. 25, § 1 of the Compiled Statutes of 1854 shall not be construed to deprive any person of color or of African descent, born within the United States and otherwise qualified, of the right of suffrage. The text of §§ 1–3 is reproduced in the Juneteenth proclamation issued by the City of Dover (https://www.dover.nh.gov/Assets/government/boards-commissions/city-council/proclamations/Juneteenth%20Day_2022.06.08.pdf : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
72. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 166, § 5; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 176, § 5, General Statutes (1867), ch. 184, § 5, General Laws of 1878, ch. 203, § 5, and Public Statutes (1891), ch. 196, § 5, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 360, § 6. ↩
73. Act of 14 May 1718, ch. 28, "An Act for the Settlement and Distribution of the Estates of Intestates"; Batchellor, Laws of New Hampshire, 2:295–98. The antecedent act of 21 October 1693 was disallowed by the Queen in Council 19 November 1706. ↩
74. Act of 3 February 1789, ch. 42, "An Act ordering the Descent of Intestate Estates and impowering the judge of probate to settle the same accordingly"; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:384–88. The companion probate act of the same session expressly repeals the act of 1718, saving proceedings already had. Carried through Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 166, § 1, Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 176, § 1, General Statutes (1867), ch. 184, § 1, General Laws of 1878, ch. 203, § 1, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 307, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 360, § 1. ↩
75. Act of 3 February 1789, ch. 42; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:384–88; carried through Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 166, § 2, and Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 176, § 2, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 203, § 2. ↩
76. Act of 3 February 1789, ch. 42; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:384–88; carried through Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 166, §§ 8, 10–11, and Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 176, § 9, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 203, § 9. ↩
77. Act of 3 February 1789, ch. 42; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:384–88. ↩
78. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 12. ↩
79. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 9. ↩
80. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 8. ↩
81. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, §§ 13–14. ↩
82. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 10. ↩
83. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, § 11. ↩
84. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, §§ 10–13; and see Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: New Hampshire, No. 15. ↩
85. General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, §§ 9–10 (widow releasing dower and homestead to take one third of the husband's real estate where he left a child, one half where he left none) and § 16 (the husband's mirror right on releasing curtesy); the dollar-based version in force in the 1940s is stated at Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: New Hampshire, No. 15, citing Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359. ↩
86. General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 1; Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, § 1. ↩
87. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 165, §§ 1–2, as amended by Laws of 1844, ch. 138, § 1; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 175, §§ 1–2, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 202, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 359, § 1. ↩
88. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 156, § 12; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 165, § 12, and General Statutes (1867), ch. 174, § 13, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, § 13. ↩
89. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 1. ↩
90. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 14. ↩
91. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 15. ↩
92. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 16. ↩
93. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 2. ↩
94. Act of 3 February 1789 (the probate act) — the judges are empowered to allow of guardians chosen by minors of fourteen years of age and upwards, and to appoint guardians for such as shall be within that age, taking security and requiring an account when the minor arrives at full age; Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:388–95. ↩
95. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 3. ↩
96. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 5; Revised Laws (1942), ch. 342, § 16. ↩
97. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 150, § 6. ↩
98. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 342, § 17. ↩
99. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 342, § 4; White v. White, 77 N.H. 26, 29 (1913). ↩
100. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 166, § 4, with Laws of 1845, ch. 238, § 1; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 176, § 4, General Statutes (1867), ch. 184, § 4, General Laws of 1878, ch. 203, § 4, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 307, § 4, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 360, § 4. ↩
101. Laws of 1860, ch. 2343, § 1; carried through General Statutes (1867), ch. 161, § 15, General Laws of 1878, ch. 180, § 15, and Public Laws (1925), ch. 286, § 39, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 338, § 42. ↩
102. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 68, § 1; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 72, § 1, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 84, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 128, §§ 1–12. ↩
103. General Laws of 1878, ch. 84, § 3; carried from Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 68, § 3. ↩
104. General Laws of 1878, ch. 84, § 4. ↩
105. General Laws of 1878, ch. 84, §§ 5–7. ↩
106. Act of 3 February 1789, "An Act for the settling of testate Estates," § 1, giving every person lawfully seized of lands within the state, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards and of sane mind, power to devise the same by last will in writing, and requiring every devise to be in writing, sealed by the devisor, signed by him or by another in his presence at his express direction, and "attested and subscribed in the presence of the said devisor, by three or more credible witnesses"; as printed in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 198–99; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew00newh : accessed 10 August 2026); and see Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 5:380–84. ↩ ↩
107. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 156, § 1, p. 311; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
108. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 156, § 6, p. 311. ↩
109. Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 165, §§ 1, 6; General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, §§ 1, 6. ↩
110. Laws of 1923, ch. 10, § 1, p. 26, amending Public Statutes (1891), ch. 186, § 1 by inserting "and married persons under that age" after "every person of the age of twenty-one years"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1923newh : accessed 10 August 2026); the section carried from Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 156, § 1, through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 165, § 1, General Statutes (1867), ch. 174, § 1, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, § 1, into Public Laws (1925), ch. 297, § 1, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 350, § 1, now RSA 551:1. ↩
111. The requirement descends from the English Statute of Frauds, 29 Car. II, c. 3 (1677), which required a devise of land to be attested and subscribed by "three or four credible witnesses." The declaratory statute 25 Geo. II, c. 6 (1751), settling who counted as a legal witness, was extended to the colonies and plantations in America; its first six sections were re-enacted as §§ 5–10 of "An Act relative to the attestation of Wills," passed 16 February 1791. Both are printed in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 203–05 and, in the appendix of repealed and antecedent laws, at 579–80. ↩
112. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 156, § 6, p. 311; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 165, § 6, and General Statutes (1867), ch. 174, § 6, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, § 6. ↩
113. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed June Session, 1887 (Manchester, N.H.: John B. Clarke, Public Printer, 1887), ch. 64, §§ 1–2, amending General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, § 6 by striking out the words "and sealed"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1889newh : accessed 10 August 2026); the Internet Archive item is labeled 1889 but contains the 1887 volume. Carried into Public Statutes (1891), ch. 186, § 2, Public Laws (1925), ch. 297, § 2, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 350, § 2, now RSA 551:2. ↩
114. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 156, § 8; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 165, § 8, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 193, § 8, into Public Statutes (1891), ch. 186, § 3, and Revised Laws (1942), ch. 350, § 3. ↩
115. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 158, § 3, p. 315; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
116. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 158, § 6, p. 315; General Laws of 1878, ch. 195, § 6. ↩
117. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 158, §§ 2, 4–5, p. 315. ↩
118. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 158, § 9; General Laws of 1878, ch. 195, § 9. ↩
119. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 352, § 9. ↩
120. The Revised Statutes of the State of New Hampshire, Passed December 23, 1842 (Concord, N.H.: Carroll & Baker, 1843), ch. 39, §§ 1–3, pp. 102–03; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso00newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
121. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 41, § 1. ↩
122. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 40, § 1. ↩
123. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 40, § 2. ↩
124. The poll ages and rates are taken from the acts themselves: Metcalf, Laws of New Hampshire, 3:533–34 (1770), 3:585–86 (1773), 5:9–10 (1784), and 5:606–07 (7 February 1789); the valuation acts of 1798 and 1803 in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), appendix, 548–51; the valuation act of 1 December 1812 in the same volume at 263–64; and Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 39, § 1, p. 102. ↩
125. The exemption is already in the act "to establish an equitable method of making rates and taxes," passed 26 December 1798, which rates each male poll from eighteen to seventy years of age "(excepting those from eighteen to twenty-one enrolled in the militia, ordained ministers, students of colleges, paupers and idiots)"; Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), appendix, 548–49. The act of 24 December 1803 repeats it at 550–51, and the act of 1 December 1812 at 263–64. The acts of 1830 and 1833 each repealed the last and carried the exemption forward; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew00newh : accessed 10 August 2026); and see the editors' notes of repeal in Laws of New Hampshire, vols. 7–10. ↩
126. The militia act makes the same point from the other side: every citizen enrolled as the act directs and provided with arms shall "while under the age of twenty-one years, be exempt from a poll tax." § 15, in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 295. ↩
127. The militia act, § 4, enrolls "each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of this state, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of sixteen years, and under the age of forty years (except such as are hereinafter excused)"; Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), 291–92. The compilation's index carries a cross-reference at 291 recording that Black men were not enrolled. Because the poll-tax exemption for men aged eighteen to twenty-one ran to those enrolled in the militia, a man barred from enrollment could not claim it. ↩
128. The valuation acts of 26 December 1798 and 24 December 1803, Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), appendix, 548–51, and of 1 December 1812, same volume, 263–64; the acts of 1830 and 1833 kept only the militia men, paupers, and idiots. ↩
129. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 39, § 1, p. 102. ↩
130. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 40, § 4. ↩
131. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 176, § 1; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 186, § 1, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 213, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 375, § 1. The section names no age; the age of majority supplies it. ↩
132. "An Act directing and regulating the appointment and choice of Petit Jurors," in Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815), with the marginal note that the freehold clause was repealed by the act of 10 December 1810, and the replacement qualification at § 4 of the act of 1813 printed in the same compilation; then Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 176, § 1, carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 186, § 1, and General Laws of 1878, ch. 213, § 1, into Revised Laws (1942), ch. 375, § 1. ↩
133. General Laws of 1878, ch. 213, § 21; carried from Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 176, § 20. ↩
134. Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 176, § 3; carried through Compiled Statutes of 1854, ch. 186, § 3, into General Laws of 1878, ch. 213, § 3. ↩
135. Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Passed January Session, 1947 (Concord, N.H.: Secretary of State, 1947), ch. 95, § 1, p. 109, "An Act Relative to Qualifications for Jury Service," approved 21 April 1947, taking effect 1 July 1947, amending Revised Laws (1942), ch. 375, § 1; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lawsofstateofnew1947newh : accessed 10 August 2026). ↩
136. The rule is the common law of England as received at the separation, not a statute: under 7 no capacity, 7 to 14 a rebuttable presumption against capacity, and full responsibility at 14. New Hampshire never wrote the ages down. General Laws of 1878 fixes no age of criminal capacity anywhere in the volume, and Hening's Digest, which covers every reported New Hampshire decision from 1816 to 1920, carries no entry on the criminal capacity of infants; its Infants title, 1:1000–04, runs to civil disability, avoidance, ratification, necessaries, and emancipation only. ↩
137. Laws of 1907, ch. 125, § 1. ↩
138. Laws of 1907, ch. 125, § 2. ↩
139. Laws of 1907, ch. 125, § 3. ↩
140. Laws of 1907, ch. 125, § 4. ↩
141. Laws of 1907, ch. 125, § 18. ↩
142. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, "Witnesses," whose twenty-seven sections fix no age for a witness and leave competency to the court. ↩
143. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228: religious opinion, which § 12 removes; party status, which § 13 allows; the death or insanity of the other party to the matter in issue, §§ 16–19; marital confidence, §§ 20–21; and conviction of an infamous crime, which § 27 removes. ↩
144. No qualification of race or sex appears in the chapters governing evidence and witnesses: Revised Statutes of 1842, ch. 188, "Of Views and Evidence," §§ 9–12; General Laws of 1878, ch. 228; Revised Laws (1942), ch. 392. Each names its grounds of incompetency exhaustively, and neither race nor sex is among them. ↩
145. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, § 20, carrying the rule from Laws of 1870, ch. 20, § 1, and Laws of 1871, ch. 38, § 2. ↩
146. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, § 21. ↩
147. Revised Laws (1942), ch. 392, § 29. ↩
148. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, § 25. ↩
149. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, § 26. ↩
150. General Laws of 1878, ch. 228, § 27. ↩

Note: This law guide was created with assistance from multiple AI tools. Though a diligent effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, there may be unintentional errors. It's important to check the primary sources as needed to ensure accuracy.