I cannot speak for North Carolina laws, but in lectures which I have attended pertaining to Virginia laws, I learned this: 1. White males in the colonial era were eligible for the milita at age 16 [Virginia and probably other colonies] 2. Both sexes could be witnesses to a document in Virginia, providing they were old enough to understand what they were witnessing. If you read a deed, for example, and then read the accompanying court record of the same date, you find that frequently the witness or witnesses give an oath as to the validity of the deed. 3. A parent could buy/have patented land for a child or children but that child, until he/she was of age, could not sell the land until of age. The contract of a minor would not be valid. Not laws, but customs, according to some genealogists: 1. A groom was generally about age 26 when he married, as by that time he may have acquired land. (I don't think indentured persons or enslaved persons were allowed to be married prior to being granted their freedom. If you have the opportunity to read this well-constructed book by W. Preston Haynie, you will learn a lot about indentures, etc. in Northumberland Co., VA. Records of indentured servants and of certificates for land, Northumberland County, Virginia 1650-1795. You will also learn of the births of children of mixed races.) 2. The bride was of any age, seemingly from age 14 on up. My great-grandmother was about age 16 when she married my Confederate veteran after the Civil War [or whatever he called it]. Comments, anyone. E.W.Wallace _Records of indentured servants and of certificates for land, Northhumberland County, Virginia, 1650-1795_ (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=764933&disp=Records+of+ indentured+servants+and+of+ce) ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com