There are easily a half dozen legal treatises (available both in facsimile and on google books) from the 17th and 18th century that make it perfectly clear that feme sole (adult single) women had standard and customary property rights.  Feme Coverts (adult married women) generally had their property held by their husbands, but even then between trusts and Feme Sole trader status, it was not surprising for married women to hold their own property.

Thomas T. Hay
Site Supervisor,
Capitol, Courthouse, Gaol
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 4:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] The Status of Women in Early Virginia - Endless Thread # 2

Kiracofe is right.
Nee = "born" and is placed after the name of a married woman to introduce  
her _maiden_ name, not the surname of her first husband. Ie Wayles not  
Skelton.

He and Hardwick and others are also right that women were recognized as  
having souls, and that they were persons not property. Indeed back in 1974  
Edmund Morgan popularized the recognition that 17th century Virginia women  
may have enjoyed greater autonomy than their English sisters.

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