Just how much legal power colonial women had is rather difficult to discover from the writings of the day; for each section had its own peculiar rules, and courts and decisions in the various colonies, and sometimes in one colony, contradicted one another.  Until the adoption of the Constitution the old English law prevailed, and while unmarried women could make deeds, wills, and other business transactions, the wife’s identity was largely merged into that of her husband.  The colonial husband seems to have had considerable confidence in his help-meet’s business ability, and not infrequently left all his property at his death to her care and management.  Thus, in 1793 John Todd left to his widow, the future Dolly Madison, his entire estate: 

“I give and devise all my estate, real and personal, to the Dear Wife of my Bosom, and first and only Woman upon whom my all and only affections were placed, Dolly Payne Todd, her heirs and assigns forever....  Having a great opinion of the integrity and honorouble conduct of Edward Burd and Edward Tilghman, Esquires, my dying request is that they will give such advice and assistance to my dear Wife as they shall think prudent with respect to the management and disposal of my very small Estate....  I appoint my dear Wife excutrix of this my will...."[304]

Samuel Peters, writing in his General History of Connecticut, 1781, mentions this incident:  “In 1740, Mrs. Cursette, an English lady, travelling from New York to Boston, was obliged to stay some days at Hebron; where, seeing the church not finished, and the people suffering great persecutions, she told them to persevere in their good work, and she would send them a present when she got to Boston.  Soon after her arrival there, Mrs. Cursette fell sick and died.  In her will she gave a legacy of L300 old tenor ... to the church of England in Hebron; and appointed John Hancock, Esq., and Nathaniel Glover, her executors.  Glover was also her residuary legatee.  The will was obliged to be recorded in Windham county, because some of Mrs. Cursette’s lands lay there.  Glover sent the will by Deacon S.H. ——­ of Canterbury, ordering him to get it recorded and keep it private, lest the legacy should build up the church.  The Deacon and Register were faithful to their trust, and kept Glover’s secret twenty-five years.  At length the Deacon was taken ill, and his life was supposed in great danger....  The secret was disclosed.”

It is evident that the colonial woman, either as spinster or as widow, was not without considerable legal power in matters of property, and it is evident too that she now and then managed or disposed of such property in a manner displeasing to the other sex.  As shown in the above incident of the church money, trickery was now and then tried in an effort to set aside the wishes of a woman concerning her possessions; but, in the main, her decisions and bequests seem to have received as much respect from courts as those of the men.