Joyce v. Joyce

CHATTELS PERSONAL AND THE MARRIED WOMAN

Blackstone designated twelve methods by which personal property could be acquired or lost. The sixth mode was marriage. 1 *3 By marriage the husband acquired chattels personal and the wife lost them. Because of “the notion of unity of person between the husband and wife, it being held, that they are one person in law, so that the very existence of the woman is suspended during the coverture, or entirely merged into that of the husband,” chattels which formerly belonged to the wife were, by act of law, vested in the husband, with the same degree of property…