Extracted From: A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856 by John Bouvier, CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA MATRON. A married woman, generally an elderly married woman. By the laws of England, when a widow feigns herself with child, in order to exclude the next heir, and a suppositious birth is expected, then, upon the writ de ventre inspiciendo, a jury of women is to be impanelled to try the question, whether with child or not.... when a woman was sentenced to death, and she declared herself to be quick with child, a jury of matrons is impanelled to try whether she be or be not with child....