mike hilton <jmh963@hotmail.com> wrote: > in several deeds I have noticed the husband and wife conveying property together and was wondering if that implied the wife might have an interest other than her dower right in the property? > >For example, Benajmin Nesham and his wife Mary conveyed together to William Vaughan in Liber IKL 174 & 175 > >Also, in William Vaughan and his wife Mary conveyed together the Westernmost half of Meeches Hope and Rich Swamp to Thomas Shurman in the formulary: <snip> _________________ This form of deed (from man and wife) inevitably means she held some separate rights, which were almost surely brought by her into the marriage by bequest, inheritance or other means. Strictly speaking, under English law her husband became the owner of such property, but the MD rules of deed construction seem consistently to require the wife’s name to be added to the grantor list on disposal of the land. For identity of Mary Vaughan, I have no immediate evidence, just some surrounding stuff. Benjamin Nesham’s first wife was Elizabeth Jamison, daughter of Alexander Jamison. She had died, and Nesham’s widow Mary of So Deeds IK:174 is named in MD Accounts 32B:123 as his executrix, and a Quaker. It is imaginable, I suppose, that Mary subsequently m. William Vaughan, but this is just a speculative possibility based on his wife’s name at So Deeds AZ:005 in 1731. I do know (by an annotation at So Rent Rolls 09:087, item 5, tract WRINGTON) that the well-known Quaker Benjamin Cottman’s widow became Benjamin Nesham’s wife. The legend at So Rent Rolls 09:033, item 3, for Cottman’s tract BERKS, also says “poss. by Cottman's heirs or Benjamin Nesham in their right, who m. the widow”, and So Deeds L1:202 says that on 12 Jun 1694 Benjamin Cottman et ux. Mary Cottman sold this to John Booth, which seems to indicate that Nesham’s wife and Cottman’s widow was Mary, ! but the record is an anachronism with the Rent Roll notation. It is not clear, though, why Mary would have had an interest in RICH SWAMP and MEECHES HOPE motivating the deed form there. John