Males could be witnesses at 14 and females at 12. This is written up in many places.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Oct 9, 2014, at 7:45 PM, John Cullom Sr. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martha Katz-Hyman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2014 11:57:02 AM
> Subject: Age of majority, 1750-1775
>
> My questions:
>
> 1) What was the age of majority in Virginia for both genders in the third
> quarter of the eighteenth century?
>
> ====================================================================================
>
> For what it is worth this is something I wrote about 15 years ago in one of my family histories:
>
> “In English law, which was the law of the Colonies, an “enfant”, i.e., a minor, or person under 21, could engage in legal transactions concerning his own personal property or welfare, but could not engage in any other transactions. Since being a witness is a legal activity not of his own business, Thomas must have been at least 21 in 1733,----“
>
> William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979), 1:452-454…”It is generally true, that an infant can neither alien his lands, nor do any legal act, nor make a deed, nor indeed any manner of contract, that will bind him. Also it is generally true, that an infant can do no legal act. An infant may also purchase lands, but his purchase is incomplete: for when he comes of age, he may agree or disagree to it…yet he may bind himself apprentice by deed indented, or indentures, for seven years…”
>
> John Cullom, Westminster, MD, USA
>
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