Section 8 maintained the earlier incapacity of a feme covert to make a will.

Despite the feme covert status, women still had dealings with the legal system in colonial America.

A feme covert was not recognized as having legal rights and obligations distinct from those of her husband in most respects.

Women during colonial times in America fell under the English governance rule of feme covert.

By English Common Law, Lockwood was considered a "feme covert" (English version of medieval Anglo-Norman legal term), that is, a married woman.

feme covert and feme sole - the legal status of adult married women and unmarried women, respectively, under the coverture principle of common law.

Under traditional English common law an adult unmarried woman was considered to have the legal status of feme sole, while a married woman had the status of feme covert.

'The principle of feme covert surfaced at its ugli- est when a loving husband claimed, and got, the right to manage the huge dowry a merchant's daughter often brought to their marriage.

English law defined the role of the wife as a 'feme covert', emphasizing her subordination to her husband, and putting her under the 'protection and influence of her husband, her baron, or lord'.

As a result, he left the property at Graeme Park in her name, though under colonial law, Elizabeth was a feme covert, meaning that all of her property belonged to her husband when they were married.

The system of feme sole and feme covert developed in England in the High and Late Middle Ages as part of the common law system, which had its origins in the legal reforms of Henry II and other medieval English kings.

Surely there is plenty here that a contemporary biographer could comment on - for instance while separated, under the legal rule of feme covert, Kemble owed all her earnings and accumulated assets to her improvident husband; once divorced, she was deprived all contact with her two daughters until they turned 21.