Texas Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

A civil-law beginning

Texas law began as Spanish civil law — law written down in codes by a ruler, rather than built up by judges deciding cases. The province of Tejas was governed from New Spain under the Castilian codes, chief among them Las Siete Partidas, "the seven parts," the thirteenth-century compilation that carried the marital property system into Texas law¹.

Under Mexico, from 1821, colonization was governed by decree. The national law of 18 August 1824 opened the vacant lands to settlers², and the state colonization law of Coahuila y Texas of 24 March 1825 required each settler to prove his Christian faith and good character³. That requirement is why a Catholic baptism appears in so many Anglo-American family lines of the 1820s and 1830s.

English common law adopted in 1840

The Republic of Texas changed the foundation. An act approved 20 January 1840 adopted the common law of England — judge-made law, handed down through court decisions — as the rule of decision in Texas courts, so far as it did not conflict with the Constitution or the acts of Congress⁴.

The same act regulated the marital rights of husband and wife, and in doing so it wrote the Spanish community property system into Texas statute law rather than replacing it. From that day forward Texas ran on English rules of procedure, contract, and crime, and on Spanish rules of marital property and land.

What Texas kept from the civil law

Two civil-law institutions shape the records:

• Community property. Husband and wife each owned half of what they gained during the marriage.
• The homestead exemption. The family home was protected from forced sale for debt by an act of the Republic in 1839, and the protection was written into the Constitution of 1845 and every constitution after it⁵.

These dates make useful anchors:

• 1848 — the descent and distribution act that governed intestate estates for the next century.
• 1870 — the marriages of formerly enslaved couples declared lawful and their children legitimate.
• 1876 — the present Constitution, with the homestead enlarged.
• 1913 — a married woman given management of her own separate property, confirmed by further acts in 1917 and 1921.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one

Under Spanish and Mexican rule full legal age was 25. A person under 25 acted through a guardian, though a father could grant emancipation earlier and marriage ended the disability at once⁶.

From 1840 the English figure governed, and full legal age in Texas was 21 for both sexes. It came in with the common law received that year, and the statutes were built on it. A person had to be 21 to make a will. A person had to be 21 to be granted letters testamentary or letters of administration — the court order that appoints someone to settle an estate. And a minor had to be over 19 to ask a court for early majority⁷. Anyone under 21 was an "infant" in legal language, even a 20-year-old, and the age applied to men and women alike through 1950.

Early release from minority

Two routes made a minor an adult before 21. Marriage did it for a girl. A female under 21 who married under the laws of Texas was from that time deemed to be of full age, with all the rights she would have had at 21. That rule ran from 1848 through every revision after it⁸, and the courts treated her as of lawful age from the marriage forward⁹. That is why a young married woman appears in Texas deeds and lawsuits in her own name. A married boy under 21 gained capacity only where a particular statute gave it to him. He could make a will, because the will statute reached anyone 21 or over or who was or had been lawfully married¹⁰. And a surviving husband under 21 could take letters as executor or administrator¹¹.

A court could also do it on petition. A minor above the age of 19, where it appeared to their material advantage, could ask a court to lift the disabilities of minority — the legal limits that came with being under 21 — and would then be held for all legal purposes to be of full age, except as to voting¹². The petition went to the district court of the county where the minor lived, was served on the father if he lived in the state, and had to name each living parent and their residence. Where the court granted it, a certified copy of the decree was recorded in the deed records of the county where the minor's property lay¹³. That file is a compact family record, and the age it recites brackets a birth year within a year or two.

A minor's legal capacity

A minor could own property of any kind, at any age. What the law limited was the power to give it away. A minor's contract could be avoided by the minor, and a minor's deed was voidable, meaning valid until the minor chose to undo it after coming of age¹⁴.

Marriage

Marrying under Spain and Mexico

To 1836 marriage was a sacrament governed by the law of the Catholic Church. The marrying ages were 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl, and a priest performed and recorded the ceremony¹⁵. The record is a parish or mission register entry, and it customarily names both parties, their parents, and their birthplaces. Its custodian is the parish or the diocese.

Bond marriages in the Republic

Ministers were scarce in early Texas, so couples used a marriage bond. They appeared before a judge or an alcalde — a local Spanish and Mexican official who served as both mayor and magistrate — and signed a bond promising to have the ceremony performed when a clergyman came within reach. They then lived as husband and wife. The legislature confirmed these unions outright in 1841. Three kinds of marriage made before the marriage act of 5 June 1837 were declared lawful and valid: those made by bond, those performed by an officer of justice who had no authority to marry people, and those made by the custom of the day. The children of those couples were declared legitimate and able to inherit¹⁶. The record is a bond filed with the county clerk rather than a return of a completed ceremony, and it proves the date the couple began living as married.

Marriage without a license

Texas has always let a couple marry informally, with no license, no minister, and no record. Three things made the marriage: an agreement in the present tense to be husband and wife, living together in Texas as husband and wife, and presenting themselves to other people as married¹⁷. All three were required together, and the living together had to happen in Texas¹⁸. An informal marriage was as valid as any other for inheritance, legitimacy, and property.

The consequence for research is a blank where a document ought to be. An informal marriage created no record at the time it was made. The proof shows up later and sideways — in a census entry, a deed reciting a wife's name, a probate application, a pension file, or a lawsuit brought after one spouse died. A Texas couple with children and no marriage license may simply have married informally.

Age and parental consent

The marriage act of 5 June 1837 set the marrying ages, and it kept the same figures the church law had used: males under 14 and females under 12 could not marry. An act of 1866 raised them, and the new minimum ages then held through 1950. From that year males under 16 and females under 14 were forbidden to marry¹⁹. Those ages governed the ceremonial marriage; an informal marriage had no minimum age. Ministers of the gospel, Jewish rabbis, judges of the district and county courts, and justices of the peace could celebrate the rites²⁰, and the couple first obtained a license from the county clerk²¹.

Consent ran to a higher age, and the ages differed by sex. From the same act of 1837 onward, no clerk could issue a license without the consent of a parent or guardian unless the male was 21 and the female 18. The consent could be given in person, or in writing signed and acknowledged before an officer. Where the clerk had any doubt, he required a sworn certificate from the parent, the guardian, or some person other than the couple stating that the parties had reached those ages. From 1911, where a minor had neither parent nor guardian, the county judge of the minor's county gave the written consent in their place²². Those consent papers and age certificates stay in the license file with the county clerk.

Marriages the law forbade

Bigamy was punished as a felony, and the penal code named the degrees of kindred — relatives too closely connected by blood or marriage — within which a man or a woman could not marry²³. Both bars run back through the earlier codes under their own article numbers.

From the marriage act of 1837 onward, marriage between a white person and a person of African descent was unlawful, and the statute declared any such marriage null and void²⁴. The bar ran between white persons and persons of African descent; Mexican Americans were classed in Texas law as white and could marry white persons. The prohibition became unenforceable with Loving v. Virginia in 1967²⁵.

Enslaved people and freedpeople

An enslaved person had no legal capacity to contract, and so no legal marriage and no civil marriage record²⁶.

The repair came in two steps. The Constitution of 1869 declared that people kept from the rites of matrimony by the law of bondage, who had lived together as husband and wife, were held to have been legally married and their children legitimate²⁷. An act of 1870 carried the rule into the statutes and fixed a date to it: couples who had lived together until the death of one of them, and all couples living in that relation on 15 August 1870, were considered to have been legally married, and the children of the cohabitation were declared legitimate²⁸. The Supreme Court applied the rule to give a freedwoman and her children full standing as widow and heirs²⁹.

Both provisions worked by themselves, without any act by the couple, so neither one created a register of the couples it married. A freedpeople's marriage is proved the way an informal marriage is proved — by evidence that the couple lived together and were known as married — and the surviving documents are usually Freedmen's Bureau marriage records, county probate files, and the census.

Property Ownership

How land came to Texas families

Land came to Texas families by grant before it came by purchase. Spain and then Mexico granted land to settlers who met the colonization terms. The grant usually came through an empresario — a colonization agent who contracted with the government to bring in a set number of families³. The Republic continued granting land by headright — a free grant given for arriving in Texas by a stated date. The size varied with the date of arrival and with whether the grantee headed a family or was single.

A grant file is a state record rather than a county one. It commonly gives the grantee's name, the date of arrival in Texas, marital status, the number of family members, and a certificate of character.

Which men could own land

Every free man could acquire, hold, and convey land. Nothing had to come before it: a free man owned land whether or not he paid a tax, held office, or could vote.

Enslaved men had no capacity to own property of any kind, and anything in their possession belonged in law to the enslaver.

Free men of African descent could own land, and did, but their right to remain in Texas was conditional. The Republic's Constitution provided that free persons of African descent could reside permanently in Texas only with the consent of Congress³⁰. Petitions to Congress for leave to remain survive and name the petitioner, the length of residence, and the white neighbors who vouched for the family.

Unmarried women and widows

A woman who was unmarried or widowed acted for herself. She could buy, hold, sell, and mortgage land, sue, and be sued on the same footing as a man. The statutes and the deed books call her a feme sole, "woman alone." The limits set out below belonged to marriage and ended with it. So a woman transacting freely in her own name in a Texas deed book is usually single or widowed³¹.

Community property

Texas divides a married couple's property into two kinds. Every question about a married person's land turns on which kind it is:

• Separate property — what a spouse owned or claimed before the marriage, and what a spouse received during the marriage by gift, by devise (a gift of land made in a will), or by descent, along with the increase of those lands and the rents from them³². It belonged to that spouse alone.
• Community property — all property acquired by either spouse during the marriage that was not separate property. Anything the couple held when the marriage ended was presumed to be community unless the contrary was proved³³.

Under this system ownership and management were separate questions. A wife kept ownership of her separate property and owned half the community outright, while her husband held the power to deal with both. English law called this coverture — the rule that a wife's legal identity merged into her husband's — and the Texas statutes use the word for the period the marriage lasted. The community property could be disposed of by the husband alone during the marriage³³. Her separate property was under his control as well until 1913, when the statute gave the wife sole management, control, and disposition of her separate property. Her husband still had to join in any conveyance or mortgage of her land³². The 1913 act did not settle the question by itself: the legislature passed further acts in 1917 and 1921, and the statute in force by the 1920s carries all three dates in its source note³⁴. Her separate property, its rents, and her personal earnings were free from her husband's debts³⁴.

One provision is worth watching for a marriage that had broken down. Where the husband was insane, had permanently abandoned his wife, or refused to join in a conveyance, she petitioned the district court of her county, and on proof that the sale would be to her advantage the court ordered that she could convey without him³⁵. That order is entered in the district court minutes, and a deed made by a wife alone rests on one.

A married woman could also be declared a feme sole for trading. With her husband's consent she petitioned the district court, and on a finding that it would be to her advantage the court decreed her feme sole for mercantile or trading purposes; from then on she contracted, sued, and was sued in her own name, and her separate property answered for her own debts³⁶. The decree is a district court record and it names both spouses.

The separate acknowledgment

Husband and wife had to join in the conveyance of the wife's separate real estate. The conveyance then took effect only when she had acknowledged it — formally declared before an authorized officer that the signature was hers and freely given — privily and apart from her husband³⁷. The officer examined her out of her husband's hearing, explained the deed, and certified that she had signed willingly. The requirement ran until 1963³⁸.

The certificate sits in the county clerk's deed books immediately after the signatures. It identifies the woman as a wife, usually names her husband, and dates the deed to the years before 1963.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

Which land was being sold decided whether the buyer needed her.

So a Texas deed signed by a man alone tells you the land was his separate property or community property and was not the homestead. A deed signed by both, with her separate acknowledgment, tells you the parcel was either her own or the family home.

The homestead

The homestead was the family's dwelling and the land around it, protected from forced sale by creditors. The Republic created the exemption in 1839, and it was modest: fifty acres or one town lot including the homestead, with improvements up to $500, together with the household goods, tools, livestock, and year’s provisions a family needed⁵. The Constitution of 1845 raised the protection to constitutional rank, and the Constitution of 1876 set the modern form³⁹. By the twentieth century a rural homestead was not more than 200 acres, in one or more parcels, with the improvements on it. An urban homestead was a lot or lots not exceeding $5,000 in value when designated, without counting the improvements. The urban lot qualified only if the property was used as a home, or as the place where the head of the family carried on a business⁴⁰.

A married man could not sell or convey the homestead without his wife's consent, shown by her joining in the conveyance, signing it, and making a separate acknowledgment before the proper officer⁴¹. A widow could stay in the homestead for life even where the children owned the land, which is why a Texas widow so often appears living on property the deed records show belongs to her children.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by grant, gift, or inheritance exactly as an adult did. Conveying it was the constraint: the deed was voidable until confirmed after majority, so a guardian managed the land and a court order authorized any sale. Own at any age; convey freely at 21.

Witnessing a deed

A deed of real estate had to be signed and acknowledged by the grantor in front of at least two credible subscribing witnesses — people who watched the signing and then signed their own names to the document. The alternative was to acknowledge the deed before an authorized officer, who then certified it for registration⁴². The rule took this form in the conveyancing act of the Republic and was carried into every revision after it⁴². The test for a witness was credibility rather than age, so a witness of any age could serve who understood an oath and could relate what they had seen. In practice deed witnesses were adults, because a witness might have to appear in court years later to prove the deed. Most Texas deeds took the officer's acknowledgment route instead.

Restrictions on land ownership by noncitizens

A separate set of restrictions fell on people who were not United States citizens. From an act of 1854, carried forward by an act of 1892 and tightened again in 1921, no alien and no alien-controlled corporation could acquire an interest in Texas land except as the statute allowed. Land held in breach of the rule was forfeited to the State through an escheat suit brought by the attorney general or the local prosecutor⁴³. The 1921 act was aimed largely at Asian immigrants, who under federal law could not naturalize, and it stayed on the books until 1965.

One provision of the 1921 act is a genealogical prize. Every alien and every alien corporation owning Texas land had to file a sworn Report of Alien Ownership with the county clerk by 31 January 1926. The report gave the owner's name, age, occupation, personal description, place of birth, last foreign residence and allegiance, the date and place of arrival in the United States, the present residence and post office address, the length of residence in Texas, the country of which the owner was then a citizen or subject, and a description of the land⁴⁴. Anyone acquiring land afterward had six months to file the same report. Few record classes in Texas name an immigrant's birthplace and arrival date together, and this one sits in the county deed and clerk's records rather than in a federal file.

The same act reached beyond land. No alien barred from owning land could be appointed guardian of a minor's estate, or executor or administrator of an estate⁴⁵. Inheritance itself was never barred: it was no objection to a claim that an ancestor through whom the claimant traced descent was or had been an alien⁴⁶.

Enslaved people and free people of color

Enslaved people owned nothing in law. Free people of color could buy, hold, and sell land on the same terms as white Texans, and did so throughout the Republic and state periods; the restrictions fell on residence and movement rather than on ownership, as set out above. After emancipation the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866 confirmed the right of freed people to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey property, and the Constitution of 1869 removed the remaining state disabilities²⁷.

Inheritance

Inheritance before 1848

Under Spanish and Mexican law a parent could not freely choose who took the estate. Most of it was reserved to the children as their legítima, "lawful portion" — a fixed share the law set aside for them — and only the remainder could be given away by will. A pre-1836 estate therefore divides among the children whatever the parent's wishes were⁴⁷.

The Republic put a scheme of its own in place. An act of 18 January 1840 fixed who took the property of a person who died without a will, and the act of 18 March 1848 recast it into the form that governed for the next century⁴⁸.

How an intestate estate was divided

When a Texan died without a will — intestate — the estate was divided by asking first which kind of property each item was, because community property and separate property passed by different rules. The surviving husband or wife already owned half of the community property and did not inherit that half; what passed at death was the other half.

The two kinds are told apart by when and how the property came to the spouse, not by whose name stood on the deed:

• Separate property — what a spouse owned before the marriage, and what came to that spouse during the marriage by gift, by will, or by inheritance, along with the rents and increase of it. It belonged to that spouse alone, and the other spouse owned no part of it.
• Community property — everything else the couple acquired while married, including earnings, crops, livestock, and land bought during the marriage. Husband and wife each owned half of it from the moment it was acquired, however the deed was drawn.

Anything the couple held when the marriage ended was presumed to be community property unless the contrary was proved, so an heir claiming a parcel as separate had to show where it came from. The distinction is set out at greater length under Property Ownership above, and every rule that follows turns on it.

Where there was no surviving husband or wife, the estate went in this order⁴⁸:

• To the children and their descendants.
• If there were no children, to the father and mother in equal portions. Where only one parent survived, that parent took half and the brothers and sisters took the other half; where there were no brothers or sisters, the surviving parent took the whole.
• If neither parent survived, to the brothers and sisters and their descendants.
• If none of these survived, half to the paternal kindred and half to the maternal.

Where a husband or wife survived, the shares were these⁴⁹:

Sons and daughters took equal shares throughout. Relations standing in the same degree took per capita — by persons, share and share alike — and where one of them had died, that person’s descendants divided the share their parent would have taken⁵¹. An estate division that gave the daughters less than the sons was made under a will. The surviving husband or wife took their own half of the community estate as owner rather than as heir, so that half can pass without appearing in the estate papers at all. The two community-property lines in the table took their present form in an act of 1887⁵⁰, so check a division made before that year against the law then in force.

How a minor's inheritance was handled

A minor inherited immediately: on a death without a will the whole estate vested at once in the heirs at law, subject to the debts⁵². Managing the inheritance fell to a guardian of the estate, appointed by the probate court chiefly because the minor owned property. Where a child inherited nothing, usually no guardianship record was created.

The father was the natural guardian of the children of a marriage while the parents lived together. On the death of one parent the survivor became natural guardian, and was entitled to be appointed guardian of the children's estates⁵³. A surviving parent could appoint a guardian by will or by written declaration⁵⁴, and where no guardian had been appointed the nearest ascendant in the direct line was entitled to it⁵⁵. Minors themselves could not serve as guardians, nor could persons of unsound mind, habitual drunkards, or debtors to the minor⁵⁶. From 1921 an alien barred from owning land could not serve either⁴⁵.

At 14 the child had a voice, and had had one since the guardianship act of 20 March 1848. A minor 14 or over had to be personally served with citation on an application for guardianship. That minor could instead file a writing with the clerk waiving citation and making choice of a guardian⁵⁷. A guardianship file in which the child chooses is therefore evidence the child had reached 14, which brackets a birth year.

The guardian gave bond, filed an inventory, accounted annually, and handed the estate over at 21 with a final settlement and a receipt. That final settlement is one of the most valuable documents in Texas genealogy. It dates the minor's majority and so approximates a birth year, and it frequently reveals a female minor's married surname. Its custodian is the county court sitting in probate.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage inherited from and through the mother throughout the period, and shared in the personal estate of her kindred as a lawful child would⁵⁸.

Inheritance from the father followed legitimation. Where the parents afterward married each other and the father recognized the child, the child was legitimated and made capable of inheriting his estate; and the children of a marriage void in law were legitimate in any case⁵⁹. Two Texas rules reach further. Because an informal marriage was a real marriage, the children of a couple who had agreed to marry and lived as husband and wife were legitimate with no ceremony behind them. And the validating acts covered whole classes at once — the children of bond marriages, declared legitimate and capable of inheriting¹⁶, and the children of formerly enslaved couples, declared legitimate by the act of 1870²⁸.

Making a will and settling an estate

Every person aged 21 or upward, or who was or had been lawfully married, being of sound mind, could make a last will and testament¹⁰. A will had to be in writing and signed by the testator — the person making the will — or by someone else at his direction and in his presence. Unless it was wholly written by the testator himself, it also had to be attested by two or more credible witnesses above the age of 14, who signed their names in the testator's presence⁶⁰.

Two Texas forms need no attesting witnesses, and both are common in the record:

• A holographic will — one wholly written by the testator — dispensed with the subscribing witnesses altogether⁶¹. Two people who knew the handwriting proved it after death, and their affidavits often identify neighbors and kin.
• A nuncupative will — a spoken will — had to be made in the testator's last sickness, at home or where he had lived for the ten preceding days, and three credible witnesses had to prove that he called on someone present to bear witness that these were his wishes. Two clocks then ran. The court waited 14 days after the death before proving it. And probate had to be sought within six months of the words being spoken, unless someone had written them down within six days, which lifted that limit⁶². The witnesses' testimony, taken down in the probate file, is sometimes the only account of a death.

Letters testamentary or of administration could not be granted to anyone of unsound mind or under 21, with one exception: a surviving husband or wife under 21 could serve¹¹. Nothing in the statute barred a woman, and a widow serving as executrix is one of the commonest entries in a Texas probate file. From 1921 an alien barred from owning land could not take letters⁴⁵. Where a will named no executor, or the named executor was disqualified or declined, the court granted letters in a fixed order — the surviving spouse first, then the principal devisee, then any devisee, then the next of kin, then a creditor, then any person of good character residing in the county⁶³. That order is useful backwards: the person who took letters tells you who among the kin was living and available.

One Texas practice thins the file. Anyone capable of making a will could direct that the county court do nothing in the settlement of the estate beyond probating and recording the will and receiving an inventory, appraisement, and list of claims⁶⁴. Where a will said so, the file holds the will, the order admitting it to probate, and the inventory, and the executor settled the rest without returning accounts to the court.

Taxation

What was taxed

Under Mexico, colonists were freed from most taxation for a term of years as an inducement to settle³, so the colonial and Mexican periods leave little in the way of individual tax records.

From the Republic onward two taxes on individuals leave usable records. The property tax, or ad valorem tax, fell on land, livestock, and other taxable property, and before 1865 on enslaved people, who were listed as property with their ages and values⁶⁵. The poll tax, also called a head or capitation tax, was a flat sum charged on a person rather than on property.

For genealogy the poll tax is the prize, because it reaches people who owned nothing. A poll list is often the only annual record of a landless tenant family, which makes early Texas tax rolls into census substitutes for the years between the federal enumerations. The custodian is the county tax assessor-collector.

Who counted as a poll

Texas had a poll tax from its first year as a republic. An act of 12 June 1837 laid one dollar on white males between 21 and 55, and for the next sixty-five years the tax had nothing to do with voting⁶⁶. Statehood did not disturb it. The Constitution of 1845 required all property to be taxed in proportion to its value and left the poll tax standing beside the property tax, so the same head tax on adult men ran through the antebellum state years⁶⁵. The convention of 1866 kept the same shape, ordering a tax of one dollar a head on the male inhabitants of the state between 21 and 55⁶⁷. The Reconstruction Constitution of 1869 raised the upper age and tied the money to schools: an annual poll tax of one dollar on all male persons between 21 and 60, for the benefit of the public schools⁶⁸. Black men gained the vote in Texas in 1869 and became liable for the tax in 1870⁶⁶, so a Texas poll list from 1870 forward should name them.

The Constitution of 1876 carried that levy forward: one dollar on all male inhabitants of the State between the ages of 21 and 60, for the benefit of the public free schools⁶⁹. An amendment adopted on 2 November 1920 struck the word male, so that women, who had just gained the vote, would pay the tax like other voters⁷⁰. That is why the revenue statute in force by the 1920s reaches every person, and why a Texas poll tax list from 1921 onward names women as well as men.

A poll tax was collected from every person between the ages of 21 and 60 who had resided in the state on the first day of January preceding the levy. The statute excused several groups. It exempted American Indians not taxed, meaning those living under tribal government rather than as ordinary state residents. It also exempted people who were insane, blind, deaf, unable to speak, missing a hand or a foot, or permanently disabled. The tax was payable between the first of October and the following first of February, and the payer was entitled to his poll tax receipt even if his other taxes were unpaid⁷¹. Anyone over 60, or blind, deaf, unable to speak, or permanently disabled, could vote without paying, on obtaining a certificate of exemption from the county tax collector⁷².

Two research consequences follow. A man's disappearance from a poll list while he is still alive elsewhere in the record usually means his sixtieth birthday or an exemption certificate, not a move. And the exemption certificates are themselves a record class, because they state the ground — age or disability — on which the man was excused.

From 1902 a constitutional amendment required payment of the tax by the first of February as a condition of voting, and required the voter to hold the receipt⁷³ — a tool of disfranchisement, and the reason the counties kept careful annual poll tax lists from 1903. A receipt names the payer, his age, his residence, and often his length of residence in the state and county. The tax itself ended in 1966, when a federal court struck it down and the voters removed it from the Constitution⁷⁴.

The tax at a glance:

The table gives who was liable in principle. It does not carry the statutory exemptions set out above, which excused American Indians not taxed and several groups by reason of disability.

Courts

Jury service

All men over 21 were competent jurors unless disqualified. A juror had to be a citizen of the state and of the county where he served, and qualified to vote there. He had to be a freeholder within the state or a householder within the county. He had to be of sound mind and good moral character, able to read and write, and not to have served recently on another jury⁷⁵. That list dates from the jury act of 1876 and was carried through every revision after it, with the literacy exception and the poll tax proviso added by amendments of 1903 and 1905⁷⁵. A man over 60 stayed competent but was excused from serving if he wished, as were public officers, ministers, physicians and lawyers in practice, and a list of named trades⁷⁶.

Before 1876 the requirements were shorter, and the age sat in the challenge rather than in the list of qualifications. The rules ran back to the jury act of 4 May 1846, the Republic and early state practice being carried into the Code of Criminal Procedure adopted in 1856⁷⁷. The county court selected grand jurors who were citizens of the State and of the county and qualified to vote there, and who were freeholders in the State or householders in their own county. The court was to see that the men it chose were of good moral character and intelligence, and each man was questioned on oath about his qualifications before he was sworn. A grand juror could be challenged on the ground that he was under twenty-one⁷⁷. So an antebellum juror was an adult man who could vote and who either owned land or kept a household.

Two of those qualifications shaped who actually sat. The freeholder or householder requirement kept landless and lodging men off panels, and the reading and writing requirement excluded men who had never been schooled — which in practice fell hardest on Black and Mexican American Texans. The statute expressly preserved the standing of a man who had not paid his poll tax: failure to pay did not disqualify him for jury service in any instance⁷⁵, so the tax operated on the vote rather than directly on the jury list.

Black men became legally eligible for jury service with the Constitution of 1869 and the federal amendments of the same era. Exclusion in practice continued through the property and literacy qualifications, through the white primary that shut Black voters out of the only election that mattered until it was struck down in 1944⁷⁸, and through discriminatory selection of the jury lists.

Women as jurors and witnesses

Women could testify throughout the period. Texas took the English common law rules of evidence by an act of 20 December 1836 and never adopted a bar on a woman's testimony⁷⁹. A husband or wife of a party was competent to testify, except as to confidential communications between them⁸⁰.

Jury service went the other way, and it changed late. The jury statute spoke of men, so women remained ineligible even after they gained the vote in 1920, and admitting them took an amendment to the Constitution. Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment establishing both the right and the duty of women to serve on grand and petit juries on 2 November 1954, and the counties began adding women to the jury lists the following year⁸¹. Any Texas jury list before 1955 is a list of men.

Criminal responsibility

Before 1856 the common law adopted in 1840 governed: a child under 7 could not commit a crime; a child of 7 to 14 was presumed unable to, and the State had to prove the child understood that the act was wrong; and from 14 the child answered as an adult⁴.

The Old Code of 1856 fixed the ages by statute. No person could in any case be convicted of an offense committed before he was nine years old. For an offense committed between 9 and 13 there could be no conviction unless it was proved that the child had discretion sufficient to understand the nature and illegality of the act. And no person could be punished with death for an offense committed before turning 17⁸². From 13 the child bore full criminal responsibility, and those figures held through 1950.

One narrow opening was added in 1905. A child under nine could from then on be convicted of perjury, and of that alone, where it was proved that he had discretion enough to understand the nature and obligation of an oath⁸³. The 1925 code carried the rule forward in that form⁸⁴.

Alongside the penal code Texas ran a juvenile system, built up by acts of 1907, 1913, and 1918⁸⁵. A delinquent child meant any boy under 17 or any girl under 18 who broke a penal law of the state, or who was incorrigible, or who kept described bad company or habits⁸⁶. County courts, district courts, and criminal district courts had original jurisdiction over those proceedings, and when disposing of them the court was known as the Juvenile Court⁸⁵. The distinction relocates the records: a child within those ages produces a juvenile file rather than an ordinary criminal case file.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify. The code set two tests, and both turned on the person rather than the years: the witness had to have intellect enough to relate the transactions they were asked about, and had to understand the obligation of an oath. The court could question anyone offered as a witness, on its own motion or on someone's suggestion, to decide whether those tests were met⁸⁷. A child therefore testified once the judge was satisfied, and a young child's uncorroborated word went to how much the jury should believe rather than to whether the child could speak at all.

The competency statutes turned on other matters. An important one for genealogy is the rule about dead people's affairs. In a suit by or against executors, administrators, or guardians, neither party could testify against the other about any transaction with, or statement by, the deceased person or the minor, unless called to testify by the opposite party⁸⁸. That rule is why so many Texas estate suits are proved by neighbors and collateral kin rather than by the people who knew the facts best.

Enslaved people and people of color as witnesses

Before emancipation, an enslaved person or a free person of African descent could give evidence only where the case was a prosecution against another enslaved person or free person of color⁸⁹. The practical effect is that a lawsuit between white parties in antebellum Texas contains no Black voices, however many Black witnesses were present at the events.

The Constitution of 1866 opened the door slightly, admitting the testimony of persons of color in cases where a person of color was a party⁹⁰. An act of 1871 removed the restriction entirely, providing that no person should be incompetent to testify on account of color, and the rule stayed in the civil statutes from then on⁹¹. From 1871 forward, expect Black witnesses in the district court files.

Sources and Where to Verify

Constitutions

• Constitution of the Republic of Texas, 1836. General Provisions, sec. 9 (residence of free persons of African descent). Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas. https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/republic-texas-1836/general-provisions (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1845. Art. VII, sec. 27 (taxation equal and uniform; all property taxed in proportion to its value). Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas. https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1845-en/article-7-general-provisions (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1866. Art. VIII (freedmen; testimony). Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas. https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1866/article-8-freedmen (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1869. Art. XII, sec. 27 (marriages and children of formerly enslaved couples). Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas. https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1869/article-12-general-provisions (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1876. Art. VI, sec. 2 (poll tax as a voting requirement, as amended 1902); art. VII, sec. 3 (the school poll tax, one dollar on all male inhabitants between 21 and 60); art. XVI, secs. 15, 50–52 (wife's separate property; homestead); art. XVI, sec. 19 (jurors, amended 1954 to admit women). The originals as adopted in 1876. Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas. Art. VI, https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1876-en/article-6-suffrage; art. VII, https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1876-en/article-7-education-public-free-schools; art. XVI, https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1876-en/article-16-general-provisions (accessed 29 July 2026). For the text as amended, Texas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative Council, https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/CN.16.htm (accessed 29 July 2026).

Codes and Compilations

• Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas. Galveston: Printed at the News Office, 1857. Adopted by the Sixth Legislature in 1856; one of the two "Old Codes," and the source for witness competency and the antebellum testimony bar (art. 644). Digital images. Legislative Reference Library of Texas. https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/code_of_criminal_procedure.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, 1925. Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925. Art. 1083 (delinquent child). Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-4-code-of-criminal-procedure-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Gammel, H. P. N., comp. The Laws of Texas, 1822–1897. 10 vols. Austin: Gammel Book Company, 1898. The indispensable set: Spanish and Mexican decrees, the colonization laws, all Republic acts, and the state session laws to 1897. Digital images. Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas Libraries. Vol. 1, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5872/; vol. 2, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/; vol. 3, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/; vol. 4, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6730/; vol. 5, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6727/; vol. 6, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6734/; vol. 7, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6732/; vol. 8, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/; vol. 9, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6729/; vol. 10, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6733/; vol. 12, covering 1903–1905, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6695/; the full set, including the supplement volumes that carry the session laws past 1897, https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/GLT/ (accessed 5 August 2026). On the Portal scans the image number runs ahead of the printed page number, so add the offset to a printed page number to reach the right image. The offset is eight in volume 1, four in volume 2, and four in volume 3. The supplement volumes restart the page numbering with each session, so volume 12 runs 866 ahead of the printed page for the general laws of the Twenty-ninth Legislature.
• Las Siete Partidas. Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1807. The Real Academia de la Historia edition of the thirteenth-century Castilian compilation that governed Texas before 1836 and left community property behind in it. Partida 4, título 1 (marrying ages) and título 16 (a father's emancipation of a child); Partida 6, títulos 1 and 13 (wills and the children's fixed portion) and título 19 (majority at twenty-five and guardianship). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/las-siete-partidas-1807 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Oldham, Williamson S., and George W. White. A Digest of the General Statute Laws of the State of Texas. Austin: John Marshall & Co., 1859. The antebellum digest; the volume to read for the slave code and the testimony restrictions in their original wording. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/adigestgenerals00mexgoog (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Paschal, George W. A Digest of the Laws of Texas. 5th ed. Houston: E. H. Cushing, 1878. Cited throughout the 1925 revision as "P. D." Carries a table of superseded articles that traces the antebellum rules through Reconstruction. Digital images. Legislative Reference Library of Texas. Vol. 1, https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol1.pdf; vol. 2, https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol2.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Penal Code of the State of Texas. Galveston: Printed at the News Office, 1857. The companion Old Code of 1856; arts. 36–37 (age of criminal responsibility). Digital images. Legislative Reference Library of Texas. https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/Penal_Code.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Penal Code of the State of Texas, 1925. Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925. Arts. 30–31 (age of criminal responsibility); art. 490 (bigamy); arts. 496–497 (prohibited degrees of kindred). Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-3-penal-code-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1879]. Austin: State Printing Office, 1887. The first official civil codification, and the article numbers cited in brackets throughout the later revisions. The revision was also printed in 1879 by A. H. Belo & Co., state printers; the digitized copy used here is the 1887 printing. Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1879/1879-3-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1895]. Austin, Tex.: Eugene von Boeckmann, 1895. Adopted at the regular session of the Twenty-fourth Legislature and published by authority of the state pursuant to chapter 82, Acts 1895. The marginal derivation printed beside each article gives that article's own source. Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1895/1895-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1911]. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, 1912. Adopted at the regular session of the Thirty-second Legislature and published by authority of the State of Texas. Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1911/1911-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, 1925. Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925. The single most useful volume for this guide: marriage, married women, community property, conveyances, descent and distribution, guardianship of minors, wills, estates, land ownership by noncitizens, jurors, evidence, and the poll tax. Each article prints its earlier article numbers in brackets and its originating act in a source note, which gives the whole chain back to the Republic. Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).

Session Laws and Colonial Decrees

• Act of 1839, "An act to exempt certain property therein named from execution" — the first homestead exemption. Approved 26 January 1839. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:125–26. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/129/ (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Act of 1840, "To regulate the Descent and Distribution of Intestates' Estates." Approved 18 January 1840. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:306. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/310/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1841, validating bond marriages and marriages celebrated by unauthorized officers. Approved 5 February 1841. Acts 1841, p. 126. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:640. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/644/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1848, descent and distribution. Approved 18 March 1848. Acts 1848, p. 129. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:129. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/133/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1848, "An Act to Regulate Proceedings in the County Courts, Relating to Guardians and Wards." Approved 20 March 1848, in force from 7 August 1848. The source of the age-14 rule by which a minor chose a guardian, and of the rules on appointment, bond, annual account, and final settlement at 21. Digested as Paschal's Digest, arts. 3885–3886. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, vol. 3. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1848, on the separate property of a married woman and on the emancipation of a married female minor. Acts 1848, p. 77. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:77. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/81/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1866, regulating marriages; the proviso raising the marrying ages to 16 for males and 14 for females. Approved 1 November 1866. Acts 1866, p. 72. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 5:990; digested as Paschal's Digest, art. 7119. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6727/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1870, concerning the cohabitation of formerly enslaved couples. Acts 1870, p. 127. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 6:301. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6734/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1871, on the competency of witnesses regardless of color. Approved 19 May 1871. Acts 1871, p. 108; digested as Paschal's Digest, art. 6826.
• Act of 1876, on letters testamentary and of administration, on the natural guardian, and on independent administration. Acts 1876, pp. 96, 124, 175. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:932, 960, 1011. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1876, on the qualifications and disqualifications of jurors. Approved 1 August 1876. Acts 1876, pp. 78, 83. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:914. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1881, on the removal of the disabilities of minority. Acts 1881, p. 16. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:108. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6729/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1887, on the community estate at the death of a spouse. Acts 1887, p. 76. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:874. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6729/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1887, on taking per capita and per stirpes in an intestate estate. Acts 1887, p. 49. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:847.
• Act of 1897, on the conveyance of a married woman's separate land. Acts 1897, p. 41. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 10:1095.
• Act of 1897, defining the homestead. Acts 1897, p. 131. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 10:1185. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6733/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1905, "Minors — Limiting Conviction of," amending article 34 of the Penal Code to add the perjury exception. Ch. 59 (S. B. No. 62). General Laws of Texas, 1905, p. 83. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, volume 12. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6695/m1/949/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1911, on the decree declaring a married woman feme sole for trading purposes. Acts 1911, p. 92; carried at Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4626.
• Act of 1911, on the consent of the county judge to the marriage of a minor who has neither parent nor guardian. Acts 1911, p. 63; carried at Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4605.
• Acts of 1913, 1917, and 1921, on the separate property and management rights of married women. Acts 1913, p. 61; Acts 1917, p. 436; Acts 1921, p. 251. All three are named in the source notes to Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 4613, 4614, 4616, and 4621.
• Acts of 1903 and 1905, amending the juror qualifications. Acts 1903, 1st C. S., p. 15; Acts 1905, p. 207. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, supplement volumes; carried at Revised Civil Statutes of 1911, art. 5115, and Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2133.
• Acts of 1854, 1892, and 1921, restricting the ownership of land by noncitizens. Acts 1854, p. 98; Acts C. S. 1892, p. 6; Acts 1921, p. 261. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, vols. 4 and 10; carried at Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 166–176, including the Report of Alien Ownership required by art. 176. The 1921 act was repealed by Acts 1965, 59th Leg., ch. 191. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6730/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Act of 1963, repealing the requirement that a married woman acknowledge a conveyance privily and apart from her husband. Acts 1963, 58th Leg., p. 1189, ch. 473, sec. 1, effective 22 August 1963.
• "An Act to Adopt the Common Law of England, to Repeal Certain Mexican Laws, and to Regulate the Marital Rights of Parties," approved 20 January 1840. Acts 1840, p. 3. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:177.
• Act of 20 December 1836, adopting the common law of England as to evidence, and the conveyancing act of the same date requiring two subscribing witnesses or an officer's acknowledgment. Digested as Paschal's Digest, arts. 3706, 997, and 4988; carried at Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 3713 and 1294.
• Act of 4 May 1846, "An Act Regulating Juries," with its amendment of 1848. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:127. Digital images. Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/131/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Colonization law of the State of Coahuila y Texas, 24 March 1825 (Decree No. 16). In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1:99.
• Marriage act, approved 5 June 1837. Acts 1837, p. 234. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1:1294; digested as Paschal's Digest, arts. 4665–4671. Section 3 (Paschal art. 4665) set the marrying ages at 14 for a male and 12 for a female; section 5 (art. 4667) set the ages above which no parental consent was needed at 21 and 18; section 9 (art. 4670) barred marriage across the color line.
• National colonization law of Mexico, 18 August 1824. In Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1:97.

Court Cases

• Askey v. Williams. 74 Tex. 294 (1889).
• Gunter v. Texas Land and Mortgage Company. 82 Tex. 496, 17 S.W. 840 (1891). Struck down the alien land act of 1891, which the act of 1892 replaced.
• Bingham v. Barley. 55 Tex. 281 (1881).
• Ex parte Threet. 333 S.W.2d 361 (Tex. 1960).
• Grigsby v. Reib. 105 Tex. 597, 153 S.W. 1124 (1913).
• Honey v. Clark. 37 Tex. 686 (1873).
• Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Downey. 183 S.W.2d 426 (Tex. 1944).
• Kilgore v. Jordan. 17 Tex. 341 (1856).
• Loving v. Virginia. 388 U.S. 1 (1967).
• Searcy v. Hunter. 81 Tex. 644 (1891).
• Simkins & Simkins v. Searcy. 10 Tex. Civ. App. 406, 32 S.W. 849 (1895). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4145941/simkins-simkins-v-searcy-guardian/.
• Smith v. Allwright. 321 U.S. 649 (1944).
• Stewart v. Baker. 17 Tex. 421 (1856).
• Timmins v. Lacy. 30 Tex. 115 (1867).
• United States v. Texas. 252 F. Supp. 234 (W.D. Tex. 1966). https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/252/234/1410599/.
• Wessely Energy Corp. v. Jennings. 736 S.W.2d 624 (Tex. 1987).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Braden, George D., et al. The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis. Texas Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1977. 2 vols. Section-by-section history; the chapter on Article VII explains the 1920 amendment to the poll tax. Digital images. Texas State Law Library. https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/braden/27-article-vii.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• McKnight, Joseph W. "Spanish Law." Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association. The standard account of what Texas kept from the civil law. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/spanish-law (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Stuntz, Jean A. Hers, His, and Theirs: Community Property Law in Spain and Early Texas. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005.
• Texas General Land Office. Archives and Heritage: the Land Grant Database, the Surname Index, and the Spanish Collection catalogues. The custodian of the Spanish, Mexican, Republic, and state grant files. https://glo.texas.gov/archives-and-heritage/search-our-collections (accessed 12 August 2026).
• Texas Historical Commission. "First Juries to Sit Women in Dallas County." Historical marker no. 15464, Dallas County, Atlas no. 5507015464. Records the first Texas juries to seat women, in 1955. Searchable by marker number through the Commission's Historic Sites Atlas.
• Texas Legislative Council. Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876. Every amendment by article and section, with its election date, joint resolution, and effect. https://tlc.texas.gov/docs/amendments/Constamend1876.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Texas State Historical Association. Handbook of Texas Online. Entries on homestead law, separate property law, women and the law, free Blacks, land grants, and the history of Texas election laws. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Texas State Law Library. Historical Texas Statutes. The digitized official codifications of 1879, 1895, 1911, and 1925, with the Vernon's and West's compilations to 1984. https://www.sll.texas.gov/library-resources/collections/historical-texas-statutes/ (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission. County records and genealogy research guides. The authority for what a Texas county record series contains and who holds it. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/genfirst (accessed 12 August 2026).
• U.S. Women's Bureau. "The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Texas." Bulletin 157-42. Washington: Government Printing Office. Citations to the then-current Texas code on marriage, property, and contracts. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/legal-status-women-united-states-america-5430 (accessed 29 July 2026).

Citations

1. Joseph W. McKnight, "Spanish Law," Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association); https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/spanish-law (accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
2. National colonization law of 18 August 1824, in H. P. N. Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas, 1822–1897 (Austin: Gammel Book Company, 1898), 1:97; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5872/ : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
3. Colonization law of the State of Coahuila y Texas, 24 March 1825, Decree No. 16; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1:99 ↩ ↩ ↩
4. "An Act to Adopt the Common Law of England, to Repeal Certain Mexican Laws, and to Regulate the Marital Rights of Parties," approved 20 January 1840; Acts 1840, p. 3; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:177, as cited in the source notes to Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, 1925 (Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925), arts. 4610 and 4619; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). Gammel's volume 2 also carries, at printed page 262, the companion act of February 1840 regulating proceedings in civil suits, which recites that the common law had been adopted ↩ ↩
5. "An act to exempt certain property therein named from execution," approved 26 January 1839; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:125–26; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/129/ : accessed 29 July 2026). Its constitutional form is Texas Constitution of 1876, art. XVI, §§ 50–52 ↩ ↩
6. McKnight, "Spanish Law"; and see Jean A. Stuntz, Hers, His, and Theirs: Community Property Law in Spain and Early Texas (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005). The underlying law is Las Siete Partidas, Partida 6, título 19, on those under the age of twenty-five and the guardians who acted for them, and Partida 4, título 16, on the effect of a father's emancipation of a child; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/las-siete-partidas-1807 : accessed 5 August 2026), the Real Academia de la Historia edition (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1807) ↩
7. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 8281 (wills), 3353 (letters testamentary and of administration), and 5921 (removal of the disabilities of minority); for the acts behind each, see notes 10, 11, and 12 below; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
8. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4625, sourced to Acts 1848, p. 77; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:77. The same female-only wording stands in the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1895] (Austin, Tex.: Eugene von Boeckmann, 1895), art. 2974, whose margin traces it to the act of 1848 and to George W. Paschal, A Digest of the Laws of Texas, 5th ed. (Houston: E. H. Cushing, 1878), art. 4642, digital images, Legislative Reference Library of Texas (https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol1.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026); digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1895/1895-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
9. Simkins & Simkins v. Searcy, 10 Tex. Civ. App. 406, 32 S.W. 849 (1895), holding that a minor became of lawful age on her marriage and that limitation then began to run against her, on the Revised Statutes then in force, art. 3225; the rule now stands at Tex. Fam. Code § 1.004 ↩
10. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 8281, sourced to Acts 1840, p. 167, and Acts 1856, p. 5; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:341 and 4:423 ↩ ↩
11. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3353, sourced to Acts 1876, p. 96; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:932 ↩ ↩
12. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 5921, sourced to Acts 1881, p. 16; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:108 ↩
13. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 5922–5923, whose source notes read "Id." and so carry them to the act cited at art. 5921: Acts 1881, p. 16; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:108; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6729/ : accessed 5 August 2026). Art. 5923 requires a certified copy of the decree to be recorded in the deed records of the county where the minor's estate lies ↩
14. Searcy v. Hunter, 81 Tex. 644, 646 (1891), holding that an infant's deed is voidable and not void, and must be disaffirmed within a reasonable time after the minor attains majority, citing Kilgore v. Jordan, 17 Tex. 341, Stewart v. Baker, 17 Tex. 421, and Bingham v. Barley, 55 Tex. 281; applied in Simkins & Simkins v. Searcy, 10 Tex. Civ. App. 406, 32 S.W. 849 (1895), digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4145941/simkins-simkins-v-searcy-guardian/ : accessed 29 July 2026); and see Askey v. Williams, 74 Tex. 294 (1889) ↩
15. McKnight, "Spanish Law"; and see Stuntz, Hers, His, and Theirs. The underlying law is Las Siete Partidas, Partida 4, título 1, which sets the canon-law marrying ages at fourteen for a male and twelve for a female and treats the betrothal and the marriage as separate acts; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/las-siete-partidas-1807 : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
16. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4608, sourced to Acts 1841, p. 126, and Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:640; the act is dated 5 February 1841 and digested at Paschal's Digest, art. 4671, "An Act Legalizing and Confirming Certain Marriages Therein Named" ↩ ↩
17. Grigsby v. Reib, 105 Tex. 597, 153 S.W. 1124 (1913) ↩
18. Ex parte Threet, 333 S.W.2d 361 (Tex. 1960) ↩
19. George W. Paschal, A Digest of the Laws of Texas, 5th ed. (Houston: E. H. Cushing, 1878), art. 4665, printing section 3 of the marriage act of 5 June 1837 with the proviso that males under fourteen and females under twelve shall not marry, and noting the amendment by the act of 1 November 1866; and art. 7119, which prints the amended rule that males under sixteen and females under fourteen years of age shall not marry; digital images, Legislative Reference Library of Texas (https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol1.pdf and https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol2.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). Paschal's table of superseded articles records that art. 4665 was superseded by art. 7119. The rule then stands unchanged at Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4603, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the sources given for art. 4602: Acts 1866, p. 72; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 5:990; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6727/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1895], art. 2955, carries the same derivation in its margin ↩
20. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4602, sourced to Acts 1866, p. 72, and Acts 1891, p. 96; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 5:990 and 10:98 ↩
21. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4604, sourced to the marriage act of 1837; Acts 1837, p. 234; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1:1294 ↩
22. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4605, sourced to Paschal's Digest, art. 4667, and to Acts 1911, p. 63. Paschal prints art. 4667 as section 5 of the marriage act of 5 June 1837, in the same ages and nearly the same words; the act of 1911 added the consent of the county judge where a minor has neither parent nor guardian ↩
23. Penal Code of the State of Texas, 1925 (Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925), art. 490 (bigamy), and arts. 496–497 (whom men and women could not marry); digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-3-penal-code-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). The bracketed numbers printed with each article carry the rules back through the codes of 1911, 1895, and 1879 ↩
24. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4607; carried from Paschal's Digest, art. 4670, which declared such a marriage null and void and the parties guilty of a high misdemeanor, and from the Penal Code, art. 346. Paschal prints art. 4670 as section 9 of the marriage act of 5 June 1837 ↩
25. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) ↩
26. Timmins v. Lacy, 30 Tex. 115 (1867) ↩
27. Texas Constitution of 1869, art. XII, § 27; Tarlton Law Library (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1869/article-12-general-provisions : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩ ↩
28. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4609, sourced to Acts 1870, p. 127; Paschal's Digest, art. 7120; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 6:301 ↩ ↩
29. Honey v. Clark, 37 Tex. 686 (1873) ↩
30. Constitution of the Republic of Texas, 1836, General Provisions, § 9; Tarlton Law Library (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/republic-texas-1836/general-provisions : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
31. The disabilities in Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 4613–4626, run to husband and wife; an unmarried woman's capacity followed the common law adopted in 1840. For the term as the statutes use it, see art. 2084, under which a suit by or against a feme sole does not abate on her marriage ↩
32. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 4613 (the husband's separate property) and 4614 (the wife's), both sourced to Acts 1848, p. 77; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:77; Texas Constitution, art. XVI, § 15; Acts 1913, p. 61; Acts 1917, p. 436; Acts 1921, p. 251; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/81/ : accessed 5 August 2026); digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩ ↩
33. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4619, sourced to Acts 1840, p. 3, and Acts 1913, p. 61; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:177 ↩ ↩
34. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4616, sourced to Acts 1848, p. 77, Texas Constitution art. XVI, § 15, and the acts of 1913, 1917, and 1921; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:77; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/81/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The same three twentieth-century dates appear in the source notes to arts. 4613, 4614, and 4621, which is why the management right is better described as settled across 1913, 1917, and 1921 than as fixed in 1913 alone ↩ ↩
35. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4617, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the acts cited at art. 4613: Acts 1848, p. 77; Texas Constitution, art. XVI, § 15; Acts 1913, p. 61; Acts 1917, p. 436; Acts 1921, p. 251; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:77 ↩
36. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4626, sourced to Acts 1911, p. 92 ↩
37. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 1299, sourced to Acts 1897, p. 41; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 10:1095; the form of the certificate is at arts. 6605 and 6608 ↩
38. Acts 1963, 58th Leg., ch. 473, § 1, repealing art. 1299, effective 22 August 1963; and see Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Downey, 183 S.W.2d 426 (Tex. 1944), holding an unacknowledged deed void as to the wife, and Wessely Energy Corp. v. Jennings, 736 S.W.2d 624 (Tex. 1987) ↩
39. Texas Constitution of 1876, art. XVI, §§ 50–52; Texas Constitution and Statutes (https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/CN.16.htm : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
40. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3833, sourced to Acts 1897, p. 131; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 10:1185 ↩
41. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 1300, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the act cited at art. 1299: Acts 1897, p. 41; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 10:1095; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6733/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The article requires the wife's separate acknowledgment in the mode set out at arts. 6605 and 6608 ↩
42. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 1294, carried from the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1879] (Austin: State Printing Office, 1887), art. 554, and before that from the conveyancing act of the Republic approved 20 December 1836, digested as Paschal's Digest, arts. 997 and 4988; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1879/1879-3-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩ ↩
43. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 166–176 (Title 5, Aliens), art. 166 sourced to Acts 1854, p. 98, Acts C. S. 1892, p. 6, and Acts 1921, p. 261; art. 167 (exceptions), art. 169 (time to alienate), art. 172 (proceedings to escheat), and art. 174 (corporations controlled by aliens); Gammel, Laws of Texas, vols. 4 and 10; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6730/ : accessed 5 August 2026); digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). The 1921 act was repealed by Acts 1965, 59th Leg., ch. 191 ↩
44. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 176, requiring every alien and alien corporation owning Texas land to file a sworn "Report of Alien Ownership" with the county clerk on or before 31 January 1926, and requiring the same report within six months from anyone acquiring land afterward; sourced with the rest of Title 5 to Acts 1921, p. 261; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
45. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 173, sourced to Acts 1921, p. 262 ↩ ↩ ↩
46. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2583, carried from Paschal's Digest, arts. 44, 45, and 46 ↩
47. McKnight, "Spanish Law"; and see Stuntz, Hers, His, and Theirs. The underlying law is Las Siete Partidas, Partida 6, títulos 1 and 13, which reserve the fixed portion to the children and limit what a parent may give away by will; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/las-siete-partidas-1807 : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
48. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2570, sourced to the act of 18 March 1848; Acts 1848, p. 129; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:129. The same source note carries the article back to an act of 18 January 1840, printing the Gammel locator as volume 3, page 306; the act in fact sits at Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:306, under the title "To regulate the Descent and Distribution of Intestates' Estates," and closes "Approved 18th January, 1840"; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/310/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The 1895 revision gives the derivation of the corresponding article, art. 1688, as the act of 18 March 1848 alone ↩ ↩
49. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2571, carried from Paschal's Digest, art. 3422, which digests section 2 of the descent and distribution act of 18 March 1848; Acts 1848, p. 129; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:129; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/133/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
50. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2578, sourced to Acts 1887, p. 76; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:874 ↩ ↩
51. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2577, sourced to Acts 1887, p. 49; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 9:847 ↩
52. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3314, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 3235), 1895 (art. 1869), and 1879 (art. 1817), and resting on the probate act of 20 March 1848; digested as Paschal's Digest, art. 1373 ↩
53. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4118, sourced to Acts 1876, p. 175; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:1011; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
54. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4119, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the act cited at art. 4118: Acts 1876, p. 175; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:1011 ↩
55. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4120, carrying the same derivation as art. 4118: Acts 1876, p. 175; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:1011 ↩
56. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4122, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 4078), 1895 (art. 2585), and 1879 (art. 2504), and resting on the guardianship act of 20 March 1848 ↩
57. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 4116; and see art. 4117, requiring personal citation of a minor 14 or over where the judge moved on his own. The rule dates from "An Act to Regulate Proceedings in the County Courts, Relating to Guardians and Wards," approved 20 March 1848 and in force from 7 August 1848, digested as Paschal's Digest, arts. 3885 and 3886, under which the court appointed guardians for minors under fourteen and admitted those over that age to choose for themselves, subject to the court's approval; digital images, Legislative Reference Library of Texas (https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/paschal_vol1.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026); Gammel, Laws of Texas, vol. 3; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
58. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2582, carried from Paschal's Digest, art. 3428, which digests the descent and distribution act of 18 March 1848; Acts 1848, p. 129; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:129 ↩
59. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2581, carried from Paschal's Digest, art. 3427, which digests the descent and distribution act of 18 March 1848; Acts 1848, p. 129; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:129 ↩
60. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 8283, sourced to the act of 28 January 1840; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:341 ↩
61. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 8284, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the act cited at art. 8283: the act of 28 January 1840; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 2:341. Texas has therefore admitted holographic wills without attesting witnesses since the Republic ↩
62. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, arts. 3346–3347, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 3269), 1895 (art. 1902), and 1879 (art. 1849), and resting on the probate act of 20 March 1848; the application requirements are at art. 3331 ↩
63. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3357, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 3281), 1895 (art. 1914), and 1879 (art. 1861), and sourced with the surrounding articles to Acts 1876, p. 96; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:932; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
64. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3436, sourced to Acts 1876, p. 124; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:960 ↩
65. Texas Constitution of 1845, art. VII, § 27, requiring all property to be taxed in proportion to its value; digital images, Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1845-en/article-7-general-provisions : accessed 29 July 2026). For the enumeration, Paschal's Digest, art. 2987, reprinting a Republic revenue act under which each person delivered the assessor a sworn inventory of taxable property, the listed classes being lands, town lots, stocks, enslaved people, horses, and cattle ↩ ↩
66. United States v. Texas, 252 F. Supp. 234, 238 (W.D. Tex. 1966), tracing the first Texas poll tax to the act of 12 June 1837, Laws of the Republic of Texas, 1837, pp. 259, 262, and the liability of Black men to Tex. Laws 1870, p. 199; https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/252/234/1410599/ (accessed 29 July 2026) ↩ ↩
67. "An Ordinance Requiring the Assessment and Collection of Taxes for the Year 1866," ordained by the convention of 1866; Paschal's Digest, arts. 5160–5162 ↩
68. Texas Constitution of 1869, art. IX, § 6; digital images, Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1869/article-9-public-schools : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
69. Texas Constitution of 1876, art. VII, § 3; digital images, Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1876-en/article-7-education-public-free-schools : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
70. Texas Legislative Council, Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876, art. VII, § 3, election of 2 November 1920, S.J.R. 17, 36th Leg., R.S. 1919 (https://tlc.texas.gov/docs/amendments/Constamend1876.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026); and George D. Braden et al., The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (Texas Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1977), art. VII, § 3, History, which explains that the change answered the Nineteenth Amendment, since leaving "male" in place would have let women vote without paying the tax; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/braden/27-article-vii.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
71. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2959, whose source note reads "Id.; Acts 4th C. S. 1920, p. 11," the called-session act that conformed the revenue statute to the constitutional amendment of 2 November 1920; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
72. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2960, whose source note reads "Id." and so carries it to the sources given for art. 2959, including Acts 4th C. S. 1920, p. 11 ↩
73. Texas Constitution, art. VI, § 2, as amended 1902 ↩
74. United States v. Texas, 252 F. Supp. 234 (W.D. Tex. 1966); https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/252/234/1410599/ (accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
75. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2133, sourced to Acts 1905, p. 207; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:914. The exception to the reading and writing requirement for sparsely populated counties is in the same article. The list of qualifications dates from the jury act of 1876, Acts 1876, pp. 78 and 83 — the qualifications at p. 78 and the disqualifications at p. 83, the page cited in the source note to art. 2134 — and runs through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1879, arts. 3009–3011, and the Revised Civil Statutes of 1895, arts. 3139–3140. The proviso on the poll tax is absent in 1895 and present in the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas [1911] (Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, 1912), art. 5115, which credits the amending acts of 1903, 1st C. S., p. 15, and 1905, p. 207; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1911/1911-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩
76. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2135, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 5118), 1895 (art. 3142), and 1879 (art. 3013), and resting on the jury act of 1876; Acts 1876, p. 78; Gammel, Laws of Texas, 8:914 ↩
77. Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas (Galveston: Printed at the News Office, 1857), arts. 339 and 341 (selection and character of grand jurors), arts. 350–351 (the questions put on oath), and art. 364, cl. 1 (challenge that a grand juror is under twenty-one); adopted by the Sixth Legislature in 1856 and cited hereafter as the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1856; digital images, Legislative Reference Library of Texas (https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/code_of_criminal_procedure.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). The code carried forward the earlier state rule from "An Act Regulating Juries," approved 4 May 1846, amended by the act of 1848 at Gammel, Laws of Texas, 3:127; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6728/m1/131/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩ ↩
78. Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944) ↩
79. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3713, sourced to the act of 20 December 1836 and to Paschal's Digest, art. 3706, adopting the common law of England as to evidence so far as it did not conflict with Texas law; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
80. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3715, carried through the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911 (art. 3689), 1895 (art. 2301), and 1879 (art. 2247) ↩
81. Texas Constitution, art. XVI, § 19, as amended by the election of 2 November 1954, S.J.R. 3, 53rd Leg., R.S. 1953; Texas Legislative Council, Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876, art. XVI, § 19 (https://tlc.texas.gov/docs/amendments/Constamend1876.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026). And see Texas Historical Commission, "First Juries to Sit Women in Dallas County," historical marker no. 15464, Dallas County, recording the first Texas juries to seat women in 1955 ↩
82. Penal Code of the State of Texas (Galveston: Printed at the News Office, 1857), arts. 36–37, adopted by the Sixth Legislature in 1856; digital images, Legislative Reference Library of Texas (https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/statutes_and_codes/Penal_Code.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
83. General Laws of the State of Texas, 1905, ch. 59 (S. B. No. 62), "Minors — Limiting Conviction of," approved by the Twenty-ninth Legislature, amending article 34 of the Penal Code to read that no person shall in any case be convicted of an offense committed before the age of nine years, except perjury, and for that only where it appears by proof that he had sufficient discretion to understand the nature and obligation of an oath; in Gammel, Laws of Texas, volume 12, General Laws of the Twenty-ninth Legislature, p. 83; digital images, Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6695/m1/949/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The exception is absent from the Penal Code of the State of Texas (Galveston, 1857), art. 36, and from the corresponding articles of the penal codes of 1879 and 1895, and is carried forward at Penal Code of 1925, art. 30 ↩
84. Penal Code of 1925, arts. 30 and 31 ↩
85. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 2329, sourced to Acts 1907, p. 137, Acts 1913, p. 214, and the fourth called session of 1918 ↩ ↩
86. Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, 1925 (Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1925), art. 1083, sourced to Acts 4th C. S. 1918, p. 43; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-4-code-of-criminal-procedure-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
87. Code of Criminal Procedure of 1856, art. 644, cls. 1–2, and art. 645, printed pp. 122–23 ↩
88. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3716, whose source note reads "Id.; P. D. 6827," carrying the rule to Paschal's Digest, art. 6827 ↩
89. Code of Criminal Procedure of 1856, art. 644, cl. 3, providing that an enslaved person or free person of color could not testify except where the prosecution was against a person who was enslaved or a free person of color; digested as Paschal's Digest, art. 3109, cl. 3, "Colored Witnesses," which Paschal's table of superseded articles traces to art. 6604 and then to its repeal by arts. 5382 and 6826 ↩
90. Texas Constitution of 1866, art. VIII; Tarlton Law Library (https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas-1866/article-8-freedmen : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩
91. Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, art. 3714, sourced to Acts 1871, p. 108, and Paschal's Digest, art. 6826; digital images, Texas State Law Library (https://www.sll.texas.gov/assets/pdf/historical-statutes/1925/1925-2-revised-civil-statutes-of-the-state-of-texas.pdf : accessed 29 July 2026) ↩

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.