I have accumulated several early land deeds, some dating back prior to 1720 for Albemarble and Bertie County North Carolina. Can someone tell me what the age and sex requirements for land ownership for the Province of North Carolina were back than and also under what circumstances women were allowed to own land. I have some deeds where the ownership is held jointly by husband and wife, however when the porperty was sold, the wife needed to assign "power of attorney" before she could sign away her rights to the property. there were other cases where a woman was sole owner, could she have purchased the property outright or must she have inherited it? As of now I seem to have COOKS in two distinct sections of Bertie County, NC during the mid 1700's. One family occupied the extreme southeastern portion of the county referred to as Black Walnut Swamp. A second COOK family occupied the northwestern portion bordering Hertford County, known as the Beaver Pocosin or Beaver Dam Swamp are. With your help I hope to complete my analysis and post my findings and theories on this site. Hopefully, those of us who are related to the COOKS of Bertie County, NC will be able to share our information and build a more complete picture. Ron