Brown v. . Brown

At common law the husband was under obligation to supply the wife with such necessaries as, in view of his fortune, were reasonably suitable to her station in life, and in the event of her death to provide appropriate burial for her body and to pay all the funeral expenses. Jenkins v. Tucker, 126 Eng. Reports, 55, 4 C. P., 90; Ambrose v. Kerrison, 138 Eng. Reports, 307, 16 C. P., 776. This “last act of piety and charity” devolves upon him because “the law makes that a legal duty which the laws of nature and society make a moral duty.” Willes, J., in Bradshaw v. Beard, 142 Eng. Reports, 1175,…