Paul Ramshaw wrote:
In colonial New England in the 17th and 18th centuries a man came of
age at 21.
See http://www.genfiles.com/legal/legalage.htm for a discussion of
this point in modern English.
The principal authority that colonial lawyers looked to for a
discussion of the common law of England was Blackstone's Commentaries
on the Laws of England, published in the late 1760s. In Book 1,
Chapter 17, Blackstone, after discussing what guardians do (i.e.,
protect and represent persons not yet of age), addresses when one
comes of age, and says it's at 21.
See attached MS Word document, with a screen shot of the relevant
portion of Blackstone.
See http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/bla-117.htm for the text
of that chapter.
Paul in DC (a lawyer)
Paul,
Many thanks for the link to Blackstone. I thought that the case was
something like that. If I remember correctly, it was around 1960 that in
England the age of majority was reduced from 21years to 18years - I cannot
remember whether it was before or after my 21st!
BTW. attachments are not allowed on this list, out of consideration for
people on dial-up and the risk of viruses (see the guide lines).
Ron Ferguson
_____________________________________________________
New Tutorial: Embed Blogger RSS feed into your Website
http://www.fergys.co.uk
Includes the family tree for Alan J Grimshaw
http://www.fergys.co.uk/Grimshaw/
For The Fergusons of N.W. England
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys/
____________________________________________________
Legacy User Group guidelines:
http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
Archived messages:
http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/
Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp
To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
