Rhode Island Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

An English legal system under a charter

Rhode Island's law came from England. It was a common-law system: judge-made law, handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature. The colony settled the point by statute in April 1700, and the revision of 1798 restated it. Where neither the common law nor a Rhode Island statute provided for a case, the English statutes already in use here stayed in force until the General Assembly said otherwise¹. So a rule with no Rhode Island statute behind it is an English rule, and English statutes count alongside English common law — but only those the colony had already taken up.

That reception rule is the key to reading this guide. For any given year, the rule in force is the Rhode Island statute where one had been passed by then, and the English common law otherwise. Several of the ages below — majority at 21, the marrying ages of 14 and 12, criminal responsibility at 14 — were never fixed by a Rhode Island act at all. They governed from 1700 onward because the reception act made them govern.

Rhode Island governed itself under written charters for most of its history. The Providence compact of 1636 was followed by the Parliamentary Patent of 1643/44 and then the Royal Charter of 1663, which governed until the first Constitution took effect in May 1843. The colony's first code was the Acts and Orders of 1647, adopted at Portsmouth. Three printed compilations of colonial law survive, of 1719, 1730 and 1745, and they are the source for most of what follows before statehood².

Probate belonged to the town council

One structural fact shapes nearly every Rhode Island record. The town councils were the courts of probate — the courts that proved wills and settled estates — within their respective towns³. The municipal court served as the court of probate for the city of Providence⁴.

Wills, administrations, inventories, and guardianships are therefore town records. They are kept by the town or city clerk, who also holds the land evidence and the vital records — often every civil record a family generated.

A common law rewritten by statute

The General Assembly replaced common-law rules with statutes over time, and a few dates anchor the whole guide:

• 1700 — English common law and the English statutes then in use are received by act of the colony.
• 1718 — land is divided among all the children for the first time; the act is repealed in 1729.
• 1784 — the gradual abolition of slavery begins.
• 1798 — land is divided among all the children, ending primogeniture for good.
• 1843 — the first Constitution takes effect, prohibiting slavery and fixing who could vote and therefore who could sit on a jury.
• 1844 — a married woman is given property of her own, beyond her husband's reach.
• 1915 — a child under 16 becomes a delinquent rather than a criminal.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one

Full legal age in Rhode Island was 21, for women and men alike, and it stayed 21 through 1950. The age came from the common law received in 1700, and it governed the question because the General Assembly never legislated on it⁵. The age dropped to 18 in 1972⁶.

A minor's legal capacity

A minor could own property. What the law limited was the power to dispose of it. A minor's contracts, a deed among them, were voidable — valid until the minor chose to undo them. On reaching 21 the minor could disaffirm, meaning formally reject, what he had signed as a child⁷. In practice a minor's land was sold for him under an order of the probate court, so a conveyance of a child's land has a town-council file behind it.

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

Into the twentieth century the common-law ages governed: a boy could marry at 14, a girl at 12. No Rhode Island act set a marrying age directly. The ages surface instead in the law against bigamy, which counted an earlier marriage against a person only where the man had been 14 and the woman 12 or over when it took place⁸. The marriage chapters of the digests regulated who could officiate, what certificate the parties had to give, and how objections were made, and left the marrying ages where the common law had put them.

A statutory minimum age arrived in 1937. From that year no minor could receive a license to marry without the written consent of a parent or guardian. The consent had to be given in the presence of an authorized person from the town or city clerk's office, and on proof that a girl had reached 16 and a boy 18. Below those ages a license issued only on a formal order of the court of domestic relations, a division of the Superior Court set up two years earlier⁹. A marriage of a girl of 14 or 15 therefore has a court file behind it from 1937, and none before.

Parental consent

Before 1881 a parent's veto operated in the moment rather than in advance. The parties had to sign and deliver to the minister, elder, or magistrate a certificate giving their names, ages, color, occupations, birthplaces, and residences. It also gave whether either had been married before and which marriage this was, and the names, occupations, and birthplaces of both sets of parents¹⁰. Anyone with a lawful objection could state it in writing to the officiant, who then had to go no further until the impediment was removed¹¹. That certificate is an unusually full record for its date, and it survives among the town clerk's marriage returns.

From 1881 the consent had to come first. Written consent of a parent or guardian was required for any minor or person under guardianship, and it had to reach the clerk before he could issue the certificate. The same act moved the certificate itself. Instead of the parties signing one and handing it to the officiant, they now obtained it from the clerk of their own town or city, or from the registrar of births, marriages and deaths in Providence¹². From 1896 a person of 18 or over who had no parent or guardian in the state competent to act could marry without consent¹³. An eighteen-year-old marrying with no consent on file may well have been an orphan.

How a marriage was made

Until 1881 a marriage was published rather than licensed, under an act the digest of 1822 dates to 1701. The parties applied to a senator, a justice of either court, a town warden, or an ordained minister. That officer made out a written publication of the intended marriage and posted it for fifteen days in a public place in the town where they lived, so that anyone with a lawful objection had the chance to make it¹⁴. That posted publication is the record behind many pre-1853 town marriage entries. The act of 1881 replaced it with a certificate issued by the town or city clerk, and the General Laws of 1896 recast that certificate as a license¹⁵.

A marriage could be solemnized by an ordained minister or elder of any religious denomination domiciled in the state, and by either justice of the supreme court in any town. In New Shoreham the town wardens could do it. Two credible witnesses besides the officiant were required, a rule already in force in 1701¹⁶. A marriage among Quakers in the manner used in their societies, or among persons professing the Jewish religion according to their rites, was good and valid¹⁷.

Town clerks kept marriage records from the earliest period, and the officiants' returns are the core record. Statewide registration of births, marriages, and deaths began in 1853, so a marriage before that year must be sought town by town.

Marriage by agreement alone

Rhode Island also recognized common-law marriage. A couple who agreed between themselves to be husband and wife, then lived together and were known in their community as married, were married. The courts read the requirements as to license, registration, and solemnization as directions to the officials rather than as conditions of a valid marriage. A marriage good at common law therefore stood on its own, and the decisions saying so run from 1894 to 1931 and treat the rule as long settled¹⁸.

This matters twice over. A couple with no marriage record may still have been lawfully married, and their children legitimate. And such a marriage is proved from reputation, from deeds and depositions describing a woman as a wife, and from the census, because the rule created no document at all.

Void and prohibited marriages

MClose relatives could not marry, and a marriage between them was void. The statute named each forbidden pairing: a man could not marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, or niece, nor the same range of relatives by a wife's blood or by a previous marriage. The list for a woman mirrored it exactly. The rule dates from an act of 1749¹⁹. Rhode Island carried a distinctive exception alongside that table from the same year: marriages among persons professing the Jewish religion, within the degrees allowed by their own religion, were exempt²⁰. The exception has remained in the code ever since, so a marriage of close kin in a Jewish family is a regular one in the records.

A marriage was absolutely void where either party had a husband or wife living, or where either was, in the words of the statute, an idiot or lunatic. No dower — a widow's right to the use of a share of her husband's land for the rest of her life — was assigned to a widow of such a marriage. The issue, meaning the children of the marriage, were deemed illegitimate²¹.

Enslaved people and people of color

From the act of January 1798, marriage between a white person and a Black, Native, or mixed-race person was void, and an officiant who joined such a couple forfeited $200²². It was repealed in March 1881²³. An interracial couple therefore appears in Rhode Island civil marriage records from 1881, and does not appear for the century before it.

Apart from that ban the impediments applied to all persons alike, whatever their race. Marriages of Black, mixed-race, and enslaved people are entered in the town and church records²⁴. An enslaver's consent controlled an enslaved person's marriage in practice, and enslaved spouses could be sold apart, so a recorded marriage may describe a household later broken up.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

A man could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or devise — a gift of land made by will — from birth. At 21 he held full power to buy, sell, mortgage, and convey it in his own name. A deed he gave before 21 was voidable⁷.

Marriage left a man's power over his own land untouched. He bought, sold, and devised it in his own right. But his deed alone did not pass a clear title, for the reason given below.

Women and land ownership

A single or widowed woman — a feme sole, "woman alone" — could buy, own, sell, sue, and be sued exactly as a man could. A married woman was a feme covert, "covered woman," under coverture, the common-law rule merging a wife's legal identity into her husband's.

Rhode Island cut into coverture in 1844. The act concerning the property of married women secured to a wife's sole and separate use the leases she held on land, her household furniture, plate (household silver), jewels, corporate stock, and mortgage debts. It reached what she owned before marriage and what she acquired after it. That property could not be seized for her husband's debts either before or after his death, and it remained her own if she survived him²⁵. The Revised Statutes of 1857 restated the act in wider terms, reaching her real estate and her earnings as well²⁵.

Owning was not the same as conveying. Where a husband and wife held land that belonged to the wife, they conveyed it by a deed signed, sealed, and delivered by both. The wife acknowledging that deed was then examined privily (privately, apart from her husband). She had to declare to the officer that the deed had been explained to her, that it was her voluntary act, and that she did not wish to take it back²⁶. If she refused, the deed passed only what belonged to the husband²⁷. By the 1930s the examination had gone: a married woman could make any contract, and take or convey any real or personal property, as if she were unmarried²⁸.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

It turns on dower: the widow's life interest, described above, in a share of her husband's land.

Rhode Island dower reached every parcel the husband held at any time during the marriage. The widow was endowed of one full and equal third part of all lands her husband — or someone holding for him — had owned in a form that could pass to his heirs, at any point during the marriage, unless she had given her dower up by deed²⁹. The wording is the same in the digests of 1798 and 1822 and in the Revised Statutes of 1857, and the same third for life is already in the colonial act of 1718. The rule therefore ran unchanged from the colonial period into the twentieth century. Until her dower was assigned to her, a widow could remain in the mansion house and the messuage — the house with its yard and outbuildings — belonging to it²⁹.

The consequence is immediate. Land a husband sold during his life carried his wife's dower with it unless she released it, so a purchaser needed her. What she had to do depended on when and how she did it:

For research this cuts two ways. A wife's name on a Rhode Island deed is the ordinary form rather than the exception, so its absence is worth a second look — the man may have been unmarried, or the title may have been left open to a dower claim. And a separate release recorded later, standing alone in the land evidence, proves a marriage existed at that moment.

Curtesy — the husband's mirror-image life interest in his late wife's land — was preserved throughout, and a married woman's will could not impair it³². Dower and curtesy were abolished in 1978³³, well after this period.

Deeds, and who witnessed them

A Rhode Island deed was made good by acknowledgment and recording rather than by witnesses. An estate of inheritance, a freehold (ownership lasting at least for someone's lifetime), or a lease for a term over a year passed by deed only on four conditions. The deed had to be in writing, signed, sealed, and delivered; acknowledged, that is, confirmed by the grantor before an official; and recorded or lodged for record with the clerk of the town where the land lay³⁴.

The grantor's acknowledgment alone made an ordinary deed good. Witnesses do often appear, by custom and by requirement in a wife's separate release of dower. A witness of any age could serve, provided he or she understood an oath and could give a rational account of what was seen³⁵. In practice they were adults, and frequently kin or neighbors of the grantor.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age. Conveying it went through the probate court, which had jurisdiction over licenses to sell the real estate of minors³⁶. The deed was executed by a guardian under that license. Own at any age; convey freely at 21.

Enslaved people, free people of color, and the Narragansett

Enslaved people were property in law and had no capacity to own anything. The colony's ratable-estate act of 1744 priced a slave for life between 16 and 50 at eighty pounds, in the same list that priced cattle, horses, sheep, and swine³⁷. Estate inventories appraise enslaved people the same way.

Rhode Island ended slavery gradually. By the act of the February 1784 session, no person born in the state on or after 1 March 1784 was to be deemed a servant for life or a slave. The slavery of such children in consequence of their mothers' condition was abolished outright, and their support fell on the town where they resided³⁸. In October 1785 the General Assembly repealed the town-support clause. It placed the support and maintenance of such a child on the owner of the mother, to the age of 21 for both sexes, so long as she was held as a slave³⁹.

Slavery was prohibited outright by the Constitution, whose Declaration of Rights provides that slavery shall not be permitted in this state⁴⁰. It took effect in May 1843.

Free people of color could own, buy, and devise land, and appear in the land evidence accordingly. The conveyancing chapter draws no distinction of race⁴¹.

Narragansett land was not held on ordinary terms. The tenure of Indian lands and trespasses upon them were governed by statute, and the tribe's affairs were administered through a state-appointed commissioner⁴². In 1880 the state detribalized the Narragansett, ending its recognition as a tribe and its collective title to land. The tribal lands were sold but for a small parcel⁴³, and the roll compiled at that point names the members.

Inheritance

How land descended

Real estate descended by different rules at different times, and the rule that governed a death turns entirely on the year.

Until 1718, the eldest son took the whole estate — primogeniture⁴⁶. The 1718 act broke with that rule and gave its own reason: it had been found hurtful that the whole real estate should descend to the eldest son, leaving the other children destitute though their labor had helped build the estate. From 1718 to 1729, land was divided among the children: a double portion to the eldest son, one share to each of the others, and equal division among the daughters where there were no sons. Where land could not be divided without spoiling the whole, the town council could set it to the eldest son on his paying the others their shares⁴⁶.

The 1729 repealing act reversed this again, saying only that the 1718 rule was destroying inheritances⁴⁷. From 1729 to 1798, the eldest son once more took the whole. The repeal saved settlements already made, so an estate whose owner died before 1729 was still divided under the 1718 rule⁴⁷.

The act of 1798 settled the question for good. It directed that the real estate of an intestate, other than an estate in fee-tail (land tied to a fixed line of heirs), descend to all the children and be divided equally among them — sons and daughters alike, with no larger share for the eldest. A posthumous child inherited as though born before the death, and grandchildren took by representation the share their parent would have had⁴⁵. The same equal division is still the rule in the digest of 1822, and it held through 1950⁴⁴.

Where the intestate left no children or grandchildren, the real estate went upward instead: first to the father, then to the mother, brothers, and sisters, and then on to more distant kin through both the paternal and maternal lines⁴⁴.

For a death before 1718, or between 1729 and 1798, expect the land whole in the eldest son's hands while the personal estate went among the rest of the family. Expect the younger children to appear in the estate papers without appearing in the deeds.

The widow's share

The widow's interest had two parts, and they worked differently. Her interest in the land was dower, a life estate in one-third. She had the use of that third for her life, while ownership passed to the heirs at her husband's death and came to them clear at hers. This is why a widow so often appears holding a life interest while her children hold the title.

Her share of the personal property she owned outright. The fraction turned on whether the intestate left issue rather than on the number of children. The same scheme — a third of the personal estate where there were children, a half where there were none, and dower in a third of the land for life — is already in the act of 1718⁴⁶. The fractions below are shares of the surplus: what remained of the personal estate once the debts and funeral charges had been paid. On top of her share the widow also took her wearing apparel, and such bedding and other household goods as the court thought necessary⁴⁴.

The order of business under the act of 1798 was the same throughout. The personal estate stood chargeable with the debts and funeral charges first. The probate court then ordered the surplus distributed, and the residue after the widow's share went among the heirs in the same manner real estate descended⁴⁴. The widow's third with issue surviving governed from 1798 until 1943, when the General Assembly raised it to a half and put a surviving husband on the same footing⁴⁸.

The land followed a second rule from 1919. Where the intestate left no issue, the surviving spouse took a life interest in all the real estate. The probate court could also set off real estate in fee — in full ownership — up to $5,000 in value⁴⁹. For a childless death after 1919, then, expect the survivor to hold the land itself for life.

Minors, guardians, and the age of fourteen

A minor's inheritance went to a guardian under the town council's supervision and under bond. The guardian accounted for it and handed it over at 21. That final settlement is one of the most valuable documents in Rhode Island genealogy: it dates the ward's majority, and so approximates a birth year, and it often reveals a female ward's married surname.

What set a guardianship in motion was property needing management, or a father who had named someone to manage it. The court appointed a guardian of the person and estate, or of the person or estate, of any minor under 14 residing or having a legal settlement in the town. At 14 the minor chose, and the court approved the choice — the same age for a boy and a girl, and the rule is the same in the digests of 1798 and 1822⁵⁰. Where a minor of 14 neglected to choose when cited, or chose someone the court did not approve, or chose one who failed to give bond, the court appointed as if the minor were under 14⁵¹. A guardianship record in which the child chooses is therefore evidence the child had reached 14, which brackets a birth year.

A guardian was also appointed where a person authorized to make a will named one for his children during their minority, and over the estate of a minor living outside the state who owned property within it⁵². Notice had to be given before appointing a guardian of a minor above 14⁵³, so those files carry an extra layer of paper naming the child.

Children born outside marriage

A child born out of wedlock inherited on the mother's side. The mother inherited from such a child under the rules governing descent from a legitimate child⁵⁴. Where the parents afterwards lawfully married each other and acknowledged him as their child, the child was deemed legitimate, in the terms the General Assembly settled on in 1926⁵⁵. A marriage can therefore turn a child born years earlier into a full heir. An inheritance running to a child whose birth predates the parents' marriage is a signal to look for that marriage.

Paternity was determined in a proceeding brought by the town's overseers of the poor, and the file names the father. One limit governed the earlier law, and it lapsed partway through the period. Under the digest of 1822, no Black or mixed-race unmarried woman was admitted to charge a white man with fathering her child⁵⁶. For those mothers the proceeding created no record and named no father. From the revision of 1844 a woman of color could bring the complaint like anyone else, and the file naming the father may well exist.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

The age to make a will was 21 for land and 18 for personal property. Every person of 21 and of sane mind could devise real estate, and every person over 18 could dispose of goods, chattels, and other personal estate by will in the same manner⁵⁷. The split is already in the revision of 1844. A married woman could dispose of her real estate at 21 and her personal estate at 18, though her will could not impair her husband's curtesy⁵⁸. The two-age split lasted well past 1950.

The number of witnesses changed once, and the change dates a will:

The revision of 1872 made that change and protected what had gone before: a will was to be judged by the law in force on the day it was executed⁶¹. A two-witness will of land from the 1860s is therefore worth a second look.

Anyone, of any age, could witness a will. The one requirement was that the witness stand to gain nothing from it. If a will left land or property to someone who also signed as a witness, that person lost the gift — the witness could still help prove the will in court, but only by giving up what the will had left them⁶². A creditor owed money by the estate could witness the will, and so could the executor or a trustee named in it⁶³. So if a family member signed a will as a witness but received nothing in it, that is likely why — and it also tells you the drafter thought that person close enough to the family to have considered leaving them something.

Whoever settled an estate, executor or administrator, had to be an adult of 21 and had to post bond. If a person died without a will, the job went to the widow or next of kin — suitable adults of 21 or older — or, if none of them fit, to some other suitable adult⁶⁴. If there was a will, the court issued letters testamentary — its written authorization to act — to the executor the will named, as long as that person was legally competent and posted bond. If the named executor was incompetent, refused the job, or simply never qualified, the court appointed someone else to carry out the will instead, a process called administration with the will annexed. A minor named as executor was passed over the same way, until he came of age — a rule already on the books in the digest of 1798⁶⁵. So the letters name whichever adult actually wound up settling the estate, which is not always the person the will named.

Taxation

What was taxed

Rhode Island taxed property. The General Assembly voted a colony rate and apportioned it among the towns, and each town raised its share by assessing the ratable (taxable) property of its inhabitants. From 1702 every town chose assessors, or rate-makers. Each inhabitant brought in a sworn list of his ratable estate, and the town constables collected⁶⁶. The same shape carried into statehood. The state tax was assessed on the valuation of the ratable property of the several towns⁶⁷. A town's own tax was levied by its qualified electors on the ratable property of the town, the assessors making a tax of all the ratable property and assessing real and personal estate separately⁶⁸.

A Rhode Island tax list therefore names the property owners of a town. Liability followed the property rather than the person, so a man who owned nothing ratable appears only where a poll was charged.

The colonial poll tax

A poll tax — a flat charge on a person rather than on property — ran alongside the property tax through the colonial period. It is the entry that catches men who owned nothing. An act of 1698 had each town take account both of ratable estate and of males between 16 and 60, and charged every male in that band one shilling. Native people, Black residents, and infirm persons were charged only where they were freemen or had set up a trade in the colony⁶⁶.

The ratable-estate act of September 1744 fixed the form the colony used thereafter. Every male of 16 and upwards was stated at one shilling per head for every thousand pounds of colony rate, servants for years included, with no upper age. The rate fell to ninepence in 1747, and sixpence was the figure the assessment acts usually carried³⁷.

The digest of 1767 had the assessors make three separate lists: estates returned by their owners, estates the assessors valued themselves, and the polls⁶⁹. That third list names the town's males of 16 and over, and it carried weight. The poll supplied about a fifth of all tax receipts on the colony valuation of 1762, and rather more on that of 1769⁶⁹.

The age moved to 21 with the state valuation of 1778, which counted all male polls of 21 and upwards, excepting ministers of the gospel and men serving in the army or navy⁷⁰. That remained the shape of the head charge until the Constitution of 1843 replaced it.

The registry tax

Under the Constitution of 1843 the head charge fell on voters instead. The assessors of each town or city annually assessed one dollar on every person whose name was registered — or such sum as with his other taxes came to a dollar — and that registry tax went to the support of public schools. No compulsory process issued to collect it. But no one could vote whose registry tax for either of the two preceding years was unpaid or unremitted⁷¹. Registration was open to a man of 21 and over⁷², so liability for the registry tax began at 21 and ran on for as long as he stayed registered, with no upper age at which it stopped.

Two remissions explain a man's absence from the list. The registry tax of anyone who performed military duty in the year was remitted for that year, and the tax on a mariner was remitted, on application, for any year he was at sea⁷¹.

Taxable ages at a glance

Later taxes

Rhode Island imposed an estate and transfer tax in 1916, on the transfer of a decedent's net estate⁷³. The estate file may carry the resulting return, which lists those who took and their relationship to the deceased. A sales tax followed in 1947⁷⁴. Rhode Island had no personal income tax before 1971⁷⁵.

Courts

Jury service

Jurors were the men who could vote on town money questions. All persons qualified to vote upon any proposition to impose a tax, or for the expenditure of money in any town, were liable to serve as jurors⁷⁶. Under the Constitution of 1843 that vote belonged to a man of 21 and over who had, within the year before, paid a tax on property of his own valued at $134 or more⁷². He got there by one of three routes: owning real estate worth $134 over incumbrances (claims and liens against the land), renting for $7 a year, or registering and paying the registry tax. But a registered voter still needed the $134 of taxable property of his own before he could vote on money, and so before he could be called for a jury. A Rhode Island juror in this period was therefore a property-holding man of 21 or over, and the tax list will show his holding.

The same shape of qualification ran back through the charter period, though not the same figure. Under the digest of 1798 the freeman's qualification was a freehold estate, and it extended to the eldest son of a qualified freeholder⁷⁷. A younger son of a landed family could therefore be passed over while his elder brother served. The $134 valuation is a nineteenth-century figure and should not be read back into the colonial period, when the qualification was stated in pounds.

Two limits on registration reached the jury list through that franchise. Until 1888 the registry route was open to native-born citizens only, so a naturalized man needed the freehold itself. The constitutional amendment of that year opened voting at large to naturalized citizens, while keeping the $134 property tax for votes on taxes and expenditure — and so keeping it for juries⁷⁸. And no pauper, person non compos mentis (not of sound mind), person under guardianship, or member of the Narragansett tribe of Indians could be registered or vote⁷⁹, so none of them could serve. Black men were enfranchised by the Constitution of 1843, and were therefore eligible for Rhode Island juries from that year on the same property terms as other men.

The exemptions ran to state officers, judges and justices, clerks of courts, sheriffs and their deputies, town sergeants and constables, and ministers of the gospel, among others⁸⁰. A short jury was filled by a further writ of venire facias, "that you cause to come" — an order to the sheriff to summon more jurors. Those summoned had to be the same good and lawful men of the county⁸¹, qualified on the same terms as the rest of the panel, and to have gone two years without serving⁸².

The jury chapter was re-enacted in 1920, and the tax-paying test went. Liability was tied instead to the qualified electors of a town or city, with the last list of the board of canvassers, made up before the first of April each year, as conclusive evidence of it. The age was set at over 25. The chapter was amended in 1921 and 1926, and an amendment of 1928 put the canvassers' list on a biennial footing from the November of that year⁸³. From 1920 the canvassers' list rather than the tax roll is the record that put a man on a jury.

The same act barred disqualifying any citizen who was otherwise qualified from serving as a grand or petit juror on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. That bar stood unamended through 1950⁸⁴.

Women and jury service

Women became liable for jury service in 1927, county by county. The act of that year provided for their service wherever the accommodations of a county's superior court house allowed it, and left that question to the jury commissioner. On his certifying to the secretary of state that a courthouse would do, the town council of each town in the county added to the annual April jury list the names of all women over 25 who were qualified electors, apart from those the general exemptions covered. A woman on the list who was unable or unwilling to serve was excused on saying so over her own signature⁸⁵.

Criminal responsibility

Criminal responsibility rested on the common-law rule received in 1700, which governed until the juvenile statutes displaced it⁸⁶:

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

Rhode Island then moved the line in stages. From 1857 a child under 18 convicted of any criminal offense could be sentenced, at the court's discretion, to the Providence reform school. The term was not less than two years and no longer than the child's minority, and it replaced the punishment the offense otherwise carried; the rule was carried forward into the code of 1896⁸⁷. An act of 1899 established separate trials for juveniles under 16 within the existing courts⁸⁸. The Juvenile Court Act of 1915 gave the district courts juvenile jurisdiction and defined a juvenile as a child under 16. It exempted such children from criminal prosecution except for murder and manslaughter, and provided that a judgment against them was neither a conviction nor a mark of criminality⁸⁹. A second act in 1944 created the Juvenile Court and raised the age to under 18⁹⁰.

The records move with the line. After 1915 a child under 16 has a juvenile file rather than a criminal case file.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, if he or she understood the obligation of an oath and could relate facts. Competency was presumed. A person was taken to be of sound mind until the contrary was shown, and an assertion that a witness was incapable did not displace that presumption — the incapacity had to be proved to the court. Where no evidence of incapacity appeared, the testimony went to the jury to weigh³⁵.

What changed was who counted as competent for other reasons. By 1872 no person was disqualified from testifying by reason of being interested in the case or a party to it. One exception remained: if one of the original parties to a contract had died, or if an executor or administrator was involved, the surviving party could still be called to testify by the other side — but couldn't testify in his own favor.⁹¹. From that point the parties themselves could testify in their own case, which is why an earlier Rhode Island lawsuit file is full of depositions from neighbors and silent from the two people actually arguing.

In civil cases a husband or wife of either party was a competent witness. Neither was permitted to give testimony incriminating the other or disclosing communications between them during the marriage, except in a few named classes of case. In a criminal prosecution the spouse of the respondent could not be compelled, but on voluntarily offering could not be excluded⁹².

A witness could be disqualified for two reasons: having a personal stake in the outcome of the case, or being married to one of the parties. This applied to everyone equally, regardless of race⁹³. Women were competent witnesses throughout the period. Before 1872 a married woman's evidence was limited the same way a man's was, by the rule shutting out any party to the case or anyone with something to gain by it, and by the common-law rules about husbands and wives.

Sources & Where to Verify

Constitutions

• Rhode Island. Constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (in force May 1843). Art. I, § 4 (slavery prohibited); art. II, §§ 1–4 (the $134 freehold, the registry route, the age of 21, the one-dollar registry tax and its remissions, and the exclusion of paupers, persons under guardianship, and members of the Narragansett tribe). Printed in the front matter of the Revised Statutes of 1857, below.
• Rhode Island. Constitution, articles of amendment. Art. VII (1888), the Bourn Amendment, removing the real-estate qualification while keeping the property-tax requirement for votes on taxes and expenditure. Rhode Island General Assembly. https://www.rilegislature.gov/riconstitution/Constitution/ConstFull.aspx (accessed 5 August 2026).

Colonial Compilations

• Acts and Laws, of His Majesties Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations in America. Boston, in New England: Printed by John Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill, 1719. The colony's first printed compilation, carrying the acts passed from March 1663 to May 1718, the intestacy act of that year among them (pp. 95–97). Bound with, and often cataloged under, The Charter Granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second (Evans 2070). Digital images and text. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/actslawsmajrhode00allerich (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The Charter Granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second, to the Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations, in America. Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by James Franklin, and sold at his shop by the Town School-House, 1730. The compilation in force in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, carrying at pp. 163–64 the act of 3 Geo. II repealing the intestacy act of 1718. Digital images and text. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-charter-granted-by-h_rhode-island_1730 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Acts and Laws, of His Majesty's Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America. Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by the Widow Franklin, and to be sold at the town school-house, 1745. The revision in force from 1745 until the revision of 1767. Carries the reception act of April 1700, the assessment act of 1702, the ratable-estate act of 1744, the marriage acts, and the four acts reaching Black and Native people. Transcribed text. Evans Early American Imprints, Text Creation Partnership (Evans 5683). https://github.com/textcreationpartnership/N04574 (accessed 5 August 2026). Also as page images, Evans Early American Imprints, University of Michigan. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N04574.0001.001?view=toc (accessed 28 July 2026).
• The continuation of 1745–52 and the revision of 1767 are not in any openly accessible digital collection; only the 1772 supplement to the 1767 revision is on HathiTrust. Both are on microfilm in Published American Colonial Records, CR 49. New Haven: Research Publications.

State Codes and Compilations

• The Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, as Revised by a Committee, and Finally Enacted by the Honourable General Assembly, at their Session in January, 1798. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson, 1798. The first post-Revolution digest. Carries the reception provision (p. 78), the freeman qualification (p. 115), the dower act (pp. 244–45), the devises act (pp. 283–86), the descent act (p. 287), the clandestine-marriages act, and the guardians act (p. 316). Digital images, full view. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112203944048 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations: as revised by a committee, and finally enacted by the Honorable General Assembly, at their session in January, 1822. Providence: Miller & Hutchens, 1822. The earliest Rhode Island compilation with usable digitized text. Each act carries the year of the originating act in the margin, which is how several colonial rules in this guide are dated. Carries "An act regulating Marriage and Divorce" (1749; prohibited degrees, void marriages, and the Jewish exception, pp. 367–70), "An act to prevent Clandestine Marriages" (1701; publication, officiants, interracial marriage at § 5, pp. 370–73), the descent act (pp. 222–24), the dower, conveyances and guardianship acts, and the bastardy act (§ 10, p. 286). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate00washgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, as Revised by a Committee, and Finally Enacted by the General Assembly at the Session in January, 1844. Providence: Knowles & Vose, 1844. Carries the act concerning the property of married women (p. 270), the wills act (pp. 231–32), the jurors act (p. 154), and a bastardy act that no longer carries the racial bar of the 1822 digest. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate01washgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• The Revised Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Providence: Sayles, Miller and Simons, 1857. The essential antebellum volume, and the source of most of the rules above: chs. 12, 23 and 39 (revenue, voters, assessment), ch. 52 (bastard children), chs. 134 and 136 (marriage; property of married women), ch. 138 (guardian and ward), chs. 140–141 (Indian lands), ch. 146 (conveyances), chs. 151–152 (courts of probate), chs. 154 and 159 (wills; descent and distribution), chs. 167 and 172 (courts; jurors), ch. 202 (dower), chs. 216, 222 and 227 (bigamy; criminal proceedings; the reform school). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/revisedstatutes00islagoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• The General Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1872. Ch. 149 (marriage), ch. 171 (wills, reduced to two witnesses), ch. 173 (administration), ch. 176 (descent and distribution), ch. 203 (witnesses and evidence), ch. 217 (jurors), ch. 218 (dower), ch. 232 (bigamy). The prefatory note records that the commissioners were to report the revision with such improvements and alterations as they thought proper, and that it was enacted as a body at the May 1872 session. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/generalstatutes00statgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• The Public Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Providence: E. L. Freeman & Co., printers to the state, 1882. The codification between the General Statutes of 1872 and the General Laws of 1896. Ch. 182 (wills) and ch. 187 (descent and distribution), the latter under the marginal reference "Gen. Stat. Chap. 176," which fixes the chapter mapping from the 1872 volume. Digital images, full view. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hl3cjw (accessed 30 July 2026).
• General Laws of Rhode Island, Revision of 1909. Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1909. Ch. 243 (marriage), ch. 246 (property of married women), ch. 254 (wills), ch. 312 (executors and administrators), ch. 316 (descent and distribution), ch. 321 (guardians). Digital images, full view. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105219648 (accessed 30 July 2026).
• General Laws of Rhode Island. Codifications of 1896, 1923, and 1938, with the Court and Practice Act of 1905. Cited here through the derivation line printed with each section of the current code and, for the 1938 text, through the Women's Bureau digest of 1948 entered below.
• General Laws of Rhode Island (current). Each section printed with its full derivation chain back through the General Laws of 1896, 1909, 1923, and 1938 and the Court and Practice Act of 1905. Rhode Island General Assembly. http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Rhode Island Department of State, State Archives. Public Laws, Acts & Resolves, General Statutes. Finding aid to the codifications of 1719, 1730–36, 1744–52, 1767, 1798, 1822, 1857, 1872, 1882, 1896, 1909, 1923, 1938, and 1956, and where to read the volumes not digitized. https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/resources/420 (accessed 28 July 2026).

Session Laws and Colonial Records

• Acts and Resolves at the General Assembly of the Governor and Company of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations. Volume covering February 1784 – October 1785. Contains "An Act authorizing the Manumission of Negroes, Mulattoes and others, and for the gradual Abolition of Slavery" (February 1784 session) and "An Act repealing Part of the Act respecting the Manumission of Slaves" (October 1785 session). Rhode Island acts of this period carry no chapter numbers and are cited by session and by title. Digital images and searchable text. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/actsresolvesatge13rhod (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Bartlett, John Russell, ed. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England. Providence, R.I.: A. Crawford Greene and Brother, State Printers, 1856. 10 vols. Vol. 8 (1776–79), issued as Records of the State of Rhode Island, reads Providence: Cooke, Jackson & Co., Printers to the State, 1863. The colonial and Revolutionary acts and proceedings in full. The assessment act of August 1698 is at III:343–45, and the October 1778 valuation is referred to at VIII:468 and VIII:555. Digital images. Internet Archive. Vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo01rhod; vol. 3, https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo03rhod_0; vol. 8, https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo08rhod (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the General Assembly, January Session, 1881. Providence: E. L. Freeman & Co., printers to the state, 1881. Contains ch. 846, p. 12, repealing the prohibition of marriage between a white person and an Indian, negro, or mulatto (passed 23 March 1881), and ch. 851, pp. 15–16, rewriting the marriage-certificate section to require the clerk's certificate and the written consent of a parent or guardian for a minor (passed 7 April 1881). Digital images, full view. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02296148h (accessed 30 July 2026).
• Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed by the General Assembly, from January 1857, to January 1859, Inclusive. Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co., State Printers, 1859. The chapters run on continuously from the Revised Statutes of 1857, so a chapter number here follows that volume rather than starting afresh. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate00anthgoog (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the Session of the General Assembly, 1925 and 1926. Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1926. Contains the act of 1926, ch. 797, on jurors' qualifications, and the act of 1926, ch. 855, on the inheritance and legitimation of a child born out of wedlock (p. 294). Catalog record for the series. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100671393 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the Session of the General Assembly, 1927 and 1928. Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1928. Contains the act of 1927, ch. 951, admitting women to jury service (p. 27), and the act of 1928, ch. 1192, on jurors' qualifications (p. 595). Catalog record for the series. HathiTrust. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100671393 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Public Laws of Rhode Island. Further acts cited in the notes, by year and chapter, each to be read in the session volume for its year: 1880, ch. 800 (detribalization); 1898, ch. 549, 1909, ch. 430, and 1937, ch. 2504 (the marriage-license section); 1899, ch. 664 (separate trials for juveniles); 1915, ch. 1185 (Juvenile Court Act); 1916, ch. 1339 (estate and transfer tax); 1919, ch. 1787 (the surviving spouse's life interest); 1920, ch. 1948, and 1921, ch. 2037 (the jury chapter re-enacted and amended); 1926, ch. 797, and 1939, ch. 700 (jurors); 1943, ch. 1283, and 1944, ch. 1421 (intestate shares); 1944, ch. 1441 (Juvenile Court); 1947, ch. 1887 (sales tax); together with the amending acts named in the citation chains; and, after the period covered here, 1971, ch. 8 (income tax), 1972, ch. 20 (majority at 18), and 1978, ch. 26 (dower and curtesy abolished).
• Rhode Island Department of State, State Archives. Digitized single acts: the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1784, https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/digital_object_components/73; the prohibition of interracial marriage, January 1798, https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/digital_object_components/86; and its repeal, March 1881, https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/digital_object_components/129 (accessed 28 July 2026).

Court Cases

• The Rhode Island Reports are on CourtListener volume by volume; the older decisions below can be read there where no direct link is given. CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/c/ri/18/ (accessed 30 July 2026).
• Briggs v. Greene. 10 R.I. 495 (1873).
• Cole v. Barber. 33 R.I. 414, 82 A. 129 (1912).
• Holgate v. United Electric Railways Co. 47 R.I. 337, 133 A. 243 (1926).
• In re McCloud. 293 A.2d 512 (R.I. 1972). https://law.justia.com/cases/rhode-island/supreme-court/1972/293-a-2d-512-0.html.
• In re Michael. 423 A.2d 1180 (R.I. 1981). https://law.justia.com/cases/rhode-island/supreme-court/1981/423-a-2d-1180.html.
• In re Odell. 672 A.2d 457 (R.I. 1996). Its note 2 collects the common-law ages of criminal capacity. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2352042/in-re-odell/.
• Jacobs v. United Electric Railways Co. 46 R.I. 230, 125 A. 286 (1924).
• Mathewson v. Mathewson. 18 R.I. 456, 28 A. 801 (1894). The Rhode Island Reports spell the name Matthewson, with two t's; search under both.
• Silva v. Merritt Chapman & Scott Corp. 52 R.I. 30, 156 A. 512 (1931).
• State v. Berard. 121 R.I. 551, 401 A.2d 448 (1979). https://law.justia.com/cases/rhode-island/supreme-court/1979/401-a-2d-448.html.
• State v. Kenyon. 18 R.I. 217, 26 A. 199 (1893).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Carson, Julia Margaret Hicks, comp. Women Jurors. Washington, D.C.: Committee on the Legal Status of Women, National League of Women Voters, 1928. A state-by-state digest of jury law as it stood in 1928, printing the Rhode Island qualification from the General Laws of 1923 at p. 31. Bibliographic record, Library of Congress (LCCN 28018217). https://lccn.loc.gov/28018217 (accessed 5 August 2026). A digital reproduction is in the Harvard University Women and Work collection.
• Conley, Patrick T. "The Law and Order Constitution." The Dorr Rebellion Project, Providence College. The suffrage settlement of 1843, the registry voter as a native-born category, and the Bourn Amendment of 1888. https://library.providence.edu/dorr/constitutions/the-law-order-constitution/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• FamilySearch Research Wiki. "Rhode Island Probate Records." What the town-council probate records contain and which have been filmed. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Rhode_Island_Probate_Records (accessed 28 July 2026).
• FamilySearch Research Wiki. "Rhode Island Vital Records." Town registration before 1853 and statewide registration after. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Rhode_Island_Vital_Records (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Gardner, Henry B. History of Taxation in Rhode Island to the Year 1790. 1890. A dissertation presented to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. Prints the ratable-estate act of 1744 in full and describes the poll tax, the assessors, and the colony valuations of 1762, 1769, and 1778. Digital text. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63441/63441-h/63441-h.htm (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Narragansett Indian Tribe. Tribal history, on detribalization and its reversal. https://narragansettindiannation.org/history/perseverance/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Rhode Island Department of State, State Archives. State vital records holdings, 1853–1975. https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/state-archives/VitalRecords (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Rhode Island Historical Society. "Vital and Probate Records." https://www.rihs.org/vital-and-probate-records/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• U.S. Bureau of the Census. Marriage and Divorce, 1867–1906. Part I, Summary, Laws, Foreign Statistics. Special Reports. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909. A state-by-state digest of marriage law as it stood at the turn of the century. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/isbn_0313206961_1 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for Rhode Island. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, no. 157-38 (revised). Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949. A digest of Rhode Island law on majority, minors' contracts, married women's property, dower, curtesy, wills, intestacy, guardianship, marriage, common-law marriage, and jury service, citing the General Laws of 1938. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-38-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Winson, Gail I. "Researching the Laws of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." Roger Williams University School of Law Faculty Papers, 2003. Published as a chapter in Pre-Statehood Legal Research: A Guide to the 50 States. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, 2004. Which colonial compilations exist, and where. DOCS@RWU. https://docs.rwu.edu/law_fac_fs/83/ (accessed 5 August 2026).

Citations

1. The Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, as Revised by a Committee, and Finally Enacted by the Honourable General Assembly, at their Session in January, 1798 (Providence: Carter and Wilkinson, 1798), p. 78, § 5, headed in the margin “Statutes of England to be in force, in case”; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112203944048 : accessed 5 August 2026). The colonial rule is the act of April 1700, “An Act for putting in Force the Laws of England, in all Cases where no particular Law of this Colony hath provided a Remedy,” in Acts and Laws, of His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by the Widow Franklin, 1745); transcribed text, Evans Early American Imprints, Text Creation Partnership (Evans 5683) (https://github.com/textcreationpartnership/N04574 : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
2. The three printed colonial compilations are Acts and Laws, of His Majesties Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations in America (Boston, in New England: Printed by John Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill, 1719), carrying the acts of March 1663 to May 1718 (digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actslawsmajrhode00allerich : accessed 5 August 2026)); The Charter Granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second, to the Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by James Franklin, 1730) (digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-charter-granted-by-h_rhode-island_1730 : accessed 5 August 2026)); and Acts and Laws, of His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by the Widow Franklin, 1745); transcribed text, Evans Early American Imprints, Text Creation Partnership (Evans 5683) (https://github.com/textcreationpartnership/N04574 : accessed 5 August 2026). The continuation of 1745–52 and the revision of 1767 survive in library copies and on microfilm in Published American Colonial Records, CR 49 (New Haven: Research Publications) ↩
3. The Revised Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Providence: Sayles, Miller and Simons, 1857), ch. 151, § 1; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedstatutes00islagoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
4. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 151, § 2 ↩
5. The common-law age governed, no Rhode Island statute having fixed one. U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for Rhode Island, Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau no. 157-38 (revised) (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949), no. 1; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-38-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
6. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1972, ch. 20, § 1; now G.L. 1956, § 15-12-1 ↩
7. Jacobs v. United Electric Railways Co., 46 R.I. 230, 125 A. 286 (1924) ↩ ↩
8. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 216, § 1, pp. 542–43, which excepts from the bigamy penalty “any former or prior marriage, made when the man was less than fourteen and the woman less than twelve years of age”; the same figures in the General Statutes of 1872, ch. 232, § 1. No Rhode Island statute set a marrying age directly: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Marriage and Divorce, 1867–1906, Part I (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909), Rhode Island, reports none for the State (digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/isbn_0313206961_1 : accessed 28 July 2026)), and General Laws of Rhode Island, Revision of 1909 (Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1909), ch. 243, sets none ↩
9. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1937, ch. 2504, § 1, amending § 11 of ch. 287 of the General Laws of 1923; the text as it then stood is digested in Women’s Bureau, Legal Status of Women… Rhode Island, nos. 5–6. The section runs from the General Laws of 1896, ch. 191, § 11, through the acts of 1898, ch. 549, and 1909, ch. 430, the General Laws of 1909, ch. 243, § 11, and of 1923, ch. 287, § 11, to those of 1938, ch. 415, § 11 ↩
10. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, § 9, p. 313 ↩
11. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 10–11, p. 313; earlier in The Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations (Providence: Miller & Hutchens, 1822), “An act to prevent Clandestine Marriages,” § 8, pp. 372–73, which the digest dates in the margin to 1701, amended 1733; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate00washgoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
12. Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the General Assembly, January Session, 1881 (Providence: E. L. Freeman & Co., printers to the state, 1881), ch. 851, § 1, pp. 15–16, passed 7 April 1881, rewriting § 9 of ch. 149 of the The General Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1872), which had required only that the parties sign and deliver the certificate; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02296148h : accessed 30 July 2026), and the 1872 volume, digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generalstatutes00statgoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
13. General Laws of Rhode Island (1896), ch. 191, § 11, the first appearance of the proviso on the derivation line printed with G.L. 1956, § 15-2-11; carried to General Laws of Rhode Island, Revision of 1909 (Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1909), ch. 243, § 11, where it is printed in full (digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105219648 : accessed 30 July 2026)) ↩
14. Public Laws of 1822, “An act to prevent Clandestine Marriages,” §§ 1–3, pp. 370–71, dated in the margin to 1701, amended 1733; the same procedure in Public Laws of 1798, act of the same title, and in Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 7–8, p. 312 ↩
15. General Laws of Rhode Island (1896), ch. 191, § 11, recasting the town clerk’s certificate as a license; the section as printed in General Laws of Rhode Island, Revision of 1909 (Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1909), ch. 243, § 11 (digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105219648 : accessed 30 July 2026)) ↩
16. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 7–8, p. 312 (ministers and elders domiciled in the state, the justices of the supreme court, and the wardens of New Shoreham), and § 14 (two witnesses at least); the officiants and the two-witness rule earlier in Public Laws of 1822, clandestine-marriages act, § 4, p. 371, and in Public Laws of 1798, act of the same title, § 4 ↩
17. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 15–16, p. 313 ↩
18. Mathewson v. Mathewson, 18 R.I. 456, 28 A. 801 (1894); Holgate v. United Electric Railways Co., 47 R.I. 337, 133 A. 243 (1926); Silva v. Merritt Chapman & Scott Corp., 52 R.I. 30, 32, 156 A. 512 (1931); the three collected in Women’s Bureau, Legal Status of Women… Rhode Island, no. 19 ↩
19. Public Laws of 1822, “An act regulating Marriage and Divorce,” §§ 1–2, pp. 367–68, which the digest dates in the margin to 1749, amended 1754, 1798 and 1803; carried to Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 1–3, p. 312, and to the General Laws of 1938, ch. 415, §§ 1–3 ↩
20. Public Laws of 1822, marriage and divorce act, closing proviso, p. 370 (nothing in the act to affect a marriage “solemnized among the Jews, within the degrees of affinity or consanguinity allowed of by their religion”); carried to Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, § 4, p. 312, and through the General Laws of 1896, ch. 191, § 4, of 1909, ch. 243, § 4, and of 1923, ch. 287, § 4, to those of 1938, ch. 415, § 4, now G.L. 1956, § 15-1-4 ↩
21. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, § 5, p. 312; earlier in Public Laws of 1822, marriage and divorce act, pp. 368–69; carried to the General Laws of 1938, ch. 415, § 5 ↩
22. Public Laws of 1798, “An Act to prevent Clandestine Marriages,” § 5, headed in the margin “No white person to be married to a Negro, &c.”; the same in Public Laws of 1822, same act, § 5, pp. 371–72, and in Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, § 6, p. 312, carried to the General Statutes of 1872, ch. 149, § 6. The prohibition entered with the January 1798 session, the date the Rhode Island State Archives gives the published act it has digitized (https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/digital_object_components/86 : accessed 28 July 2026); the compilations of 1719, 1730 and 1745 carry no such prohibition, nor do Bartlett’s Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, vols. 5 and 6 (1741–69), searched in full text ↩
23. Public Laws… January Session, 1881, ch. 846, § 1, p. 12, passed 23 March 1881, repealing § 6 of ch. 149 of the General Statutes under the marginal note “Law prohibiting intermarriages between whites and negroes, etc., repealed”; the enrolled act, Rhode Island State Archives (https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/repositories/2/digital_object_components/129 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
24. The impediments in Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 134, §§ 1–6, and in the marriage acts of the digests of 1798 and 1822 are drawn by degree of kindred, by a prior marriage, by mental incapacity, and by race; none turns on servile condition. The marriage acts in the compilations of 1719, 1730 and 1745 carry no racial or servile restriction. The practice described here rests on the surviving town and church registers rather than on an act ↩
25. Public Laws of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations… at the Session in January, 1844 (Providence: Knowles & Vose, 1844), “An act concerning the Property of Married Women,” p. 270; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate01washgoog : accessed 28 July 2026); broadened in Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, § 1, and carried through the General Laws of 1896, ch. 194, § 1, to those of 1938, ch. 417, § 1, now G.L. 1956, § 15-4-1 ↩ ↩
26. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, §§ 6–7; the private examination earlier in Public Laws of 1822, “An act… for the conveyance of lands,” §§ 7–8, and in Public Laws of 1798, conveyances act ↩ ↩
27. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, § 7; the same rule in Public Laws of 1822, conveyances act, § 7 ↩
28. General Laws of 1938, ch. 417, §§ 3–6, digested in Women’s Bureau, Legal Status of Women… Rhode Island, nos. 11–14 ↩ ↩
29. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 202, § 1; the same rule in the General Statutes of 1872, ch. 218, §§ 1, 4, and earlier in Public Laws of 1798, “An Act regulating Proceedings in Actions of Dower,” §§ 1–2, pp. 244–45, and Public Laws of 1822, “An act ascertaining what the widow shall be endowed of,” §§ 1–2, which also give her right to remain in the mansion house and messuage until dower is assigned. The colonial rule was the same third for life: “An Act, for Distribution and Settling of Intestates Estate,” 4 & 5 Geo. I (1718), in Acts and Laws, of His Majesties Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations in America (Boston, in New England: Printed by John Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill, 1719), pp. 95–97 ↩ ↩
30. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, § 10 ↩
31. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, § 11 ↩
32. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, §§ 12–13; General Laws of 1938, ch. 418, § 1, and ch. 566, § 12 ↩
33. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1978, ch. 26, § 1; now G.L. 1956, § 33-25-1 ↩
34. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 146, § 2; widow’s dower saved, § 10; the same requisites in Public Laws of 1822, conveyances act, § 2, and in Public Laws of 1798, conveyances act ↩
35. Age was not a ground of disqualification. The General Statutes of 1872, ch. 203, “Of views, witnesses, depositions, and evidence,” draws its grounds by interest and party status, and the colonial compilations of 1719, 1730 and 1745 set no age either; a deed was proved by the grantor’s acknowledgment, Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 146, § 2. On the presumption of capacity and where the burden lay, Cole v. Barber, 33 R.I. 414, 416–17, 82 A. 129 (1912) ↩ ↩
36. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 151, “Of the jurisdiction of courts of probate, and of license to sell real estate,” § 10 (licenses to guardians); § 9 covers sales by executors and administrators, and § 7 the appointment of guardians ↩
37. “An Act ascertaining what Estate is Rateable, and for proportioning the same in Value,” passed at Newport 18 September 1744, 18 Geo. II, in Acts and Laws, of His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by the Widow Franklin, 1745). The reduction to ninepence in 1747, and the sixpence usually carried in the assessment acts, are given in Henry B. Gardner, History of Taxation in Rhode Island to the Year 1790 (1890), pp. 65–66; digital text, Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63441/63441-h/63441-h.htm : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
38. “An Act authorizing the Manumission of Negroes, Mulattoes and others, and for the gradual Abolition of Slavery,” February 1784 session, in Acts and Resolves at the General Assembly… of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, volume covering February 1784 – October 1785; digital images and searchable text, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actsresolvesatge13rhod : accessed 30 July 2026). Acts of this period carry no chapter numbers and are cited by session and title ↩ ↩
39. “An Act repealing Part of the Act respecting the Manumission of Slaves,” October 1785 session, Acts and Resolves, February 1784 – October 1785 volume ↩ ↩
40. R.I. Const. of 1843, art. I, § 4; printed in the front matter of the Revised Statutes of 1857 ↩
41. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 146, “Of the conveyance of real estate,” which states the requisites of a deed for any grantor and draws no distinction of race. The four acts in the compilation of 1745 reaching Black and Native people do not touch the holding or conveyance of land, and the compilations of 1719 and 1730 carry none ↩
42. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 140, “Of the tenure of, and of trespasses on Indian lands,” §§ 1–2, and ch. 141, “Of the commissioner of the Indian tribe” ↩
43. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1880, ch. 800 ↩
44. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 176, §§ 1 (courses of descent) and 9 (distribution of the surplus: one half to the widow if the intestate died without issue, one third if he died leaving issue, the residue among the heirs as real estate descends), which fixes the 1798 fractions as still in force in 1872; the same scheme in Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 159, and in Public Laws of 1822, descent act, §§ 1–2, pp. 223–24, the second section carrying the widow’s apparel and bedding ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
45. Public Laws of 1798, “An Act directing the Descent of Intestate Estates, and the Settlement thereof, and for other Purposes therein mentioned,” § 1, p. 287, headed in the margin “Intestate’s real estate to descend to all the children equally”; the digest of 1822 prints 1798 in the margin as the act’s year, p. 222 ↩ ↩
46. “An Act, for Distribution and Settling of Intestates Estate,” 4 & 5 Geo. I (1718), in Acts and Laws, of His Majesties Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations in America (Boston, in New England: Printed by John Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill, 1719), pp. 95–97: a third of the personal estate to the wife outright and a third of the real estate for her dower during life, a half of the personal estate where there were no children; the residue among the children, a double portion to the eldest son, with advancements brought into account and equal division among daughters where there were no sons; and, where land could not be divided without spoiling the whole, the town council might set it to the eldest son on his paying the others their shares. The act’s preamble is also the authority for the rule it displaced, reciting that it had been found “very hurtful… that the whole real estate of such person dying intestate should descend to his eldest son,” leaving the other children destitute; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/actslawsmajrhode00allerich : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
47. “An Act for Repealing an Act made and past in this Colony, in the Fourth and Fifth Years of the Reign of King George the First, Entituled, An Act for Distribution and Settling Intestate Estates,” 3 Geo. II, in The Charter Granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second, to the Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by James Franklin, 1730), pp. 163–64, reciting that the act was “found very prejudicial in this Colony, by destroying Inheritances” and saving estates already settled. The third year of George II ran from June 1729 to June 1730; the compilation of 1745 enters the repealed act in its table under the marginal note “Repeal’d, A.D. 172-,” the final digit not rendered, so the repeal falls in 1729 or the first half of 1730 ↩ ↩ ↩
48. General Laws of 1938, ch. 567, § 9, as amended by the act of 1943, ch. 1283, § 3, p. 36, digested in Women’s Bureau, Legal Status of Women… Rhode Island, no. 25. The older fractions stood unchanged through the General Statutes of 1872, ch. 176, § 9, The Public Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Providence: E. L. Freeman & Co., printers to the state, 1882), ch. 187, § 9, p. 490, and General Laws… Revision of 1909, ch. 316, § 9; images of the 1882 volume, digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hl3cjw : accessed 30 July 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩
49. General Laws of 1938, ch. 567, § 4, as amended by the act of 1944, ch. 1421, § 1, p. 51; the life interest originates in the act of 1919, ch. 1787, § 7, which the derivation chain printed with G.L. 1956, §§ 33-1-5 and 33-1-6 shows as the enacting act; the $5,000 figure as digested in Women’s Bureau, Legal Status of Women… Rhode Island, no. 15 ↩
50. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 138, §§ 3–4; carried through the Court and Practice Act of 1905 to General Laws… Revision of 1909, ch. 321, §§ 2–4, and thence to the General Laws of 1923, ch. 372, and of 1938, ch. 426; the same rule earlier in Public Laws of 1798, “An Act respecting Guardians,” § 1, p. 316, and Public Laws of 1822, guardianship act, § 1 ↩
51. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 138, § 5 ↩
52. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 138, §§ 1, 6; General Laws of 1938, ch. 426, § 5 ↩
53. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 152, § 2, cl. 3, requiring notice to all parties known to be interested in the appointment of guardians of minors above fourteen ↩
54. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 159, § 7: bastards shall be capable of inheriting or transmitting inheritance, on the part of their mother, in like manner as if they had been lawfully begotten. The same rule is in the revision of 1844 and stands unchanged in the Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 187, § 7, p. 490, and in General Laws… Revision of 1909, ch. 316, § 7; Briggs v. Greene, 10 R.I. 495 (1873) ↩
55. Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the Session of the General Assembly, 1925 and 1926 (Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1926), act of 1926, ch. 855, § 1, approved 26 April 1926, p. 294, headed in the margin “Child born out of wedlock may inherit on the part of his mother; deemed legitimate, when”; carried to the General Laws of 1938, ch. 567, § 7, now G.L. 1956, § 33-1-8. Catalog record for the series, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100671393 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
56. Public Laws of 1822, “An act regulating proceedings in cases of Bastardy,” § 10, p. 286, marginal note “No black woman to charge white man”: no black or colored unmarried woman shall be admitted to charge any white person with begetting her with child. The bar has no counterpart in the revision of 1844 or in ch. 52 of the Revised Statutes of 1857, “Of the maintenance of bastard children”; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/publiclawsstate00washgoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
57. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 154, §§ 1, 6, and wills of personal estate executed as wills of land, § 7; the same ages in Public Laws of 1844, wills act, § 4, pp. 231–32, and still in the Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 182, §§ 1, 7, p. 471 ↩
58. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 136, § 12, and ch. 154, § 3 ↩
59. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 154, § 4: all devises and bequests of lands shall be in writing and signed by the party devising, “and shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of the devisor, by three or more witnesses, or else shall be utterly void and of no effect”; the same requirement in Public Laws of 1844, wills act, § 2 ↩
60. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 171, § 4: a devise is void unless “attested and subscribed in the presence of the devisor by two or more witnesses.” The reduction is the revision’s own work; its commissioners were appointed to revise and consolidate the public laws and to report them “with such proposed improvements, alterations, and additions, as they may deem proper,” and the General Statutes were enacted as a body at the May 1872 session (prefatory note to the volume). Carried through the Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 182, § 4, p. 471, and the General Laws of 1896, ch. 203, § 13, to those of 1938, ch. 566, § 13, now G.L. 1956, § 33-5-5 ↩
61. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 171, § 9, where the rule first appears: “A will of real or personal estate, made and executed in conformity with the law existing at the time of the execution thereof shall be effectual to pass such estate.” It has no counterpart in the wills chapter of the Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 154. Carried to the Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 182, § 9, p. 472; the successor provision, General Laws of 1896, ch. 203, § 45, now G.L. 1956, § 33-5-12, reaches the same result by providing that the wills chapter shall not extend to a will executed before 1 February 1896 ↩
62. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 154, § 13, and Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 182, § 15, p. 472: a beneficial devise or legacy to a person attesting the will is utterly void so far as concerns that person, “and such person shall be admitted as a witness”; already in Public Laws of 1844, wills act, § 9; carried to the General Laws of 1938, ch. 566, § 31, now G.L. 1956, § 33-6-1 ↩
63. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 154, § 14, and Public Statutes of 1882, ch. 182, § 16, p. 472; already in Public Laws of 1844, wills act, § 10; carried through the General Laws of 1896, ch. 203, §§ 33, 35, to those of 1938, ch. 566, §§ 32, 34 ↩
64. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 173, §§ 4–5 ↩
65. General Laws of 1938, ch. 571, § 1, and ch. 575, § 3, descending from the Court and Practice Act of 1905, §§ 815, 819, through the General Laws of 1909, ch. 312, §§ 1, 5, and of 1923, ch. 363, §§ 1, 5, now G.L. 1956, §§ 33-8-1, 33-8-4; administration with the will annexed during a named executor’s minority already in Public Laws of 1798, devises act, § 11, p. 285 ↩
66. The assessment act of August 1698, laying a rate of eight hundred pounds to pay “the Collony’s debts, and putting monies in bank,” in John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England (Providence, R.I.: A. Crawford Greene and Brother, State Printers, 1856), III:343–45: clause 1 has two men chosen in each town to take an account of each person’s rateable estate and “an exact account of all male persons in their respective towns from the age of sixteen years, to sixty years of age”; clause 7 charges each such male “the sum of one shilling per head, negroes and Indians and impotent persons excepted, without it be such as are freemen, and have set up any trade or calling in this Collony” (p. 344). The poll was a term of a particular assessment act rather than a standing charge, which is why no poll provision appears in the digest of 1719. digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo03rhod_0 : accessed 5 August 2026). The standing machinery is “An Act for Establishing and Regulating the Assessing and collecting such Rates and Taxes… Levied on the Colony,” passed at Newport 6 May 1702, in Acts and Laws, of His Majesty’s Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America (Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by the Widow Franklin, 1745); the act of 1698 is described, and its locator in Bartlett given, in Gardner, History of Taxation in Rhode Island, pp. 34–35 and n. 87 ↩ ↩ ↩
67. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 12, §§ 1–2 ↩
68. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 39, “Of the levy and assessment of taxes,” §§ 1 (electors qualified to vote on a proposition to impose a tax may levy it on the ratable property of the town) and 7 (assessors to make a tax of all the ratable property, assessing real and personal estate separately) ↩
69. The digest of 1767, as described in Gardner, History of Taxation in Rhode Island, p. 66: the assessors to make separate lists of the estates returned by their owners, of the estates they valued themselves, and of the polls. The poll’s share of receipts on the valuations of 1762 and 1769, ibid., p. 78 ↩ ↩
70. Act of October 1778 ordering a new state valuation — account to be taken of ratable estates and of all male polls of twenty-one and upwards, excepting ministers of the gospel and officers and soldiers in the army and naval service — its terms given in Gardner, History of Taxation in Rhode Island, p. 76. Bartlett’s Records of the State of Rhode Island, vol. VIII, records the October 1778 session appointing a committee “to draft a bill for taking a new estimate” (p. 468) and the February 1779 session directing assessors to proceed “agreeably to the act passed at the session held in October last” (p. 555), but does not print the act itself; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo08rhod : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩ ↩
71. R.I. Const. of 1843, art. II, § 3 ↩ ↩ ↩
72. R.I. Const. of 1843, art. II, §§ 1–2; proof of qualification, Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 23, § 18 ↩ ↩
73. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1916, ch. 1339, § 1; carried through the General Laws of 1923, ch. 39, § 1, the acts of 1923, ch. 426, § 1, 1926, ch. 810, § 1, and 1929, ch. 1355, § 1, the General Laws of 1938, ch. 43, § 1, and the act of 1939, ch. 664, § 1, now G.L. 1956, § 44-22-1 ↩
74. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1947, ch. 1887, art. 2, § 17; now G.L. 1956, § 44-18-18 ↩
75. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1971, ch. 8, art. 1, § 1; now G.L. 1956, § 44-30-1 ↩
76. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 172, § 1; the same rule in the General Statutes of 1872, ch. 217, § 1, and earlier in Public Laws of 1844, “An Act in relation to Jurors,” § 1, p. 154 ↩
77. Public Laws of 1798, “An Act regulating the manner of admitting Freemen,” § 2, p. 115, requiring a freehold estate, and extending the qualification to the eldest son of a qualified freeholder ↩
78. R.I. Const., art. of amendment VII (the Bourn Amendment, 1888), striking the real-estate qualification of art. II, § 1 while keeping the requirement of a tax paid on property valued at $134 for votes on the imposition of a tax or the expenditure of money; on the registry voter as a native-born category, Patrick T. Conley, “The Law and Order Constitution,” The Dorr Rebellion Project, Providence College ↩
79. R.I. Const. of 1843, art. II, § 4 ↩
80. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 172, § 2 ↩
81. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 167, § 7, and ch. 172, § 24 ↩
82. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 172, § 25 ↩
83. The jury chapter was re-enacted by Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1920, ch. 1948, which the derivation lines printed with G.L. 1956, §§ 9-9-1, 9-9-2, 9-9-3 and 9-9-22 give as the origin of §§ 1, 2, 3 and 19 of the modern chapter; amended by the acts of 1921, ch. 2037, and 1926, ch. 797. The age of 25 and the qualified-elector test were in place by the codification of 1923: Julia M. H. Carson, comp., Women Jurors (Washington, D.C.: Committee on the Legal Status of Women, National League of Women Voters, 1928), 31, prints General Laws of Rhode Island, 1923, ch. 329, § 1 — numbered § 4691 in that volume’s continuous numbering — as “All male persons over 25 years of age who are qualified electors in any town or city shall be liable to serve as jurors.” The canvassers’ list was put on a biennial footing by the act of 1928, ch. 1192, § 1, p. 595 ↩
84. The provision enters with Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1920, ch. 1948, § 2, and passes to the General Laws of 1923, ch. 329, § 2, and of 1938, ch. 506, § 2, with no amending act on the chain before the re-enactment of the chapter by the act of 1939, ch. 700, § 1; now G.L. 1956, § 9-9-2. Derivation from the history line printed with the current section, Rhode Island General Assembly (http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE9/9-9/9-9-2.HTM : accessed 5 August 2026). Carson, Women Jurors, 31, gives the section as it stood in the General Laws of 1923, numbered § 4692 there ↩
85. Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Passed at the Session of the General Assembly, 1927 and 1928 (Providence: E. L. Freeman Company, printers to the state, 1928), act of 1927, ch. 951, §§ 1–2, approved 24 February 1927, p. 27, “An Act to Provide for the Service of Women as Jurors.” Catalog record for the series, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100671393 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
86. The rule came in with the common law under the reception provision at note 1. Its period statement is 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1769), 23–24, and 3 Edward Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England, 571, which the Rhode Island Supreme Court identifies as the source of the rule the State received: State v. Berard, 121 R.I. 551, 553–54, 401 A.2d 448, 450 (1979) (https://law.justia.com/cases/rhode-island/supreme-court/1979/401-a-2d-448.html : accessed 30 July 2026). The terms of the rebuttal are given in In re Odell, 672 A.2d 457, 459 n. 2 (R.I. 1996): a child between seven and fourteen is presumed incapable of entertaining criminal intent, the presumption rebuttable “upon proof that [the child] knew the difference between right and wrong, and the nature and consequences of his [or her] act,” after fourteen full capacity is presumed; and see In re Michael, 423 A.2d 1180, 1182 (R.I. 1981) (https://law.justia.com/cases/rhode-island/supreme-court/1981/423-a-2d-1180.html : accessed 30 July 2026) ↩
87. Revised Statutes of 1857, ch. 222, “Of proceedings in criminal cases,” § 44, p. 565; see also General Laws of 1896, ch. 290, and State v. Berard, 401 A.2d at 452 ↩
88. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1899, ch. 664 ↩
89. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1915, ch. 1185; In re McCloud, 293 A.2d 512, 515 (R.I. 1972) ↩
90. Public Laws of Rhode Island, 1944, ch. 1441 ↩
91. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 203, § 32 ↩
92. General Laws of 1938, ch. 537, §§ 15, 17; State v. Kenyon, 18 R.I. 217, 26 A. 199 (1893) ↩
93. General Statutes of 1872, ch. 203, and General Laws of 1938, ch. 537, §§ 15, 17, whose disqualifications are drawn by interest, by party status, and by the marriage relation; the colonial compilations carry no racial disqualification of witnesses, and none is reported in the Women’s Bureau digest ↩

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