Married Women's Wills in
Amite County, Mississippi, 1840-1919
Jennifer M. Payne
Master's Thesis
Rice University, 1996
ABSTRACT: The fifteen married women's wills
probated in Amite County, Mississippi between 1840 and 1919 indicate that
the women were linked by geographical proximity, church affiliation, and
similar social status. After the legal changes of 1839 that allowed married
women in Mississippi to act as a feme sole in regards to their own property,
Amite County wives took advantage of the law and acted independently from
their husbands. These testaments also give evidence of the social and economic
changes experienced by the region and the South during those eight decades.
Below is a list of the fifteen women who were profiled in detail
in this paper. Click on a name for a link to the section which focused
on that individual. (This does not link to all references--check
the Conclusion section for a final discussion of these women) They
were the only women who wrote wills probated in Amite County who were STILL
MARRIED at the time of their deaths.
This was the product of several periods of research
over three years--there are probably some glaring errors and omissions
and I would be happy to hear from others who have corrections or more to
add to this story. In addition to researching the legal activities
of the married women testatrixes featured in Wills Books I & II of
Amite County, I also gathered information on their families, neighbors,
and others who were involved in their lives. I had no contact with
any of the descendents of these women and so all of the information was
gathered from public sources (wills, inventories, census and land records).
I will gladly admit that many of my characterizations are purely speculative:
there is no way that anyone can infer with any certainty what these women's
feelings and motivations were. I hope that no one is offended by
this paper; I would personally have loved to have met any of these
individuals and can't help but admit to think that I could have been friends
with a few of them. I plan to continue the writing to include all
the wills written by women in Amite County between 1820 and 1919 (the span
of Wills Books I & II) and their legacies from their menfolk.
The Introduction section gives an overview of the status of married
women's property law reform in Nineteenth Century America and Britain.
Chapter One focuses on those women whose wills were probated between
1840 and 1860. This is the largest section of the paper and it features
some history of Amite County and its families--the beginning of the chapter
provided much of the information on my Brief History of Amite County site.
When I transferred this thesis from my Univ TX website to the current Geocities
site, I had to divide the chapter into two sections because of space restrictions.
The time frames I broke Chapter One into, 1839-1858 and 1859-1860 not significant;
rather, the chapter divided into two roughly equal parts between the discussions
of Elizabeth Johns' estate and that of Aletha Dixon.
Chapter Two discusses the two wills probated during the Reconstruction
era. Its the shortest section of the paper (there were only two married
women's wills probated at this time.
Chapter Three includes some background on the communities of Gloster
and Centerville as Amite County moved into the Twentieth Century.
I encourage anyone who has slogged through the previous
four sections to look over the Conclusion and Notes sections because these
parts incorporate much of my "extra" information. The Notes section
of this paper contains not only the references, but also much of
the information I couldn't place in the formal paper itself; a few
notes are over a page long. Many people researching Amite
County families my find this Notes section to be of particular use.
I The only person I can say with certainty that I am related to is
Jane Blanchard Caston Moore who is featured in this note section on nun
cupative wills.
The text was taken directly from my computer.
A paper version is available through University Microforms International
for a fee. (They get the fee, I don't).
Jennifer Payne
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