Woman's In Charleston: The Court Of The Ordinary

The majority of probate inventories assessed the estates of the male heads of a household. This stems from the fact that all of the colonies in North American followed the English law of coverture. The law of coverture allowed that a married woman and her husband were legally considered a single economic unit. This meant that once a woman married regardless of what assets of monetary value she brought with her into the marriage, she was now under the guardianship of her husband. Although she was allowed to own a few personal items, she was no longer legally allowed to own real property, sue or be sued in court, or make any contracts. Although some assessed the estates of “spinsters,” when a probate inventory was taken of a deceased woman’s …show more content…
Eventually, with the founding of the Colony in 1670 came the creation of the original Probate Court. In the court's early days, the Royal Governors or their secretaries were the only Ordinaries in the province. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an ordinary in matters of civil law, as “a judge having authority to deal with cases in his or her own right and not by delegation……Also, in parts of the United States: a county judge having jurisdiction esp. of a court of probate. In 1778, the S.C. Commons House of Assembly began the task of appointing Ordinaries for each of the province's 7 court districts. However, due to the presence of British forces in South Carolina during this period, no District Ordinaries were to actually be appointed until 1782. With the departure of the last Royal Governor after the implementation of the Federal Constitution in 1788, the South Carolina General Assembly appointed an Ordinary to fulfill the duties of the office in Charleston District. In 1787, duties of the District Ordinaries were transferred to county courts. However, because Charleston District yet had no county court, a 1789 law directed the Ordinary to continue. County courts were abolished in 1799, and within the year, the South Carolina General Assembly had created twenty-four circuit court districts whose Ordinaries were appointed by them up until 1815 when they became electable positions. In 1868, the South Carolina Constitution replaced the Court of the Ordinary with the Probate Court. In 1895, changes to the South Carolina Constitution required that the Probate Court be dependent on the General Assembly for funding and legal procedures. This was the case in all counties except Charleston where it remained a constitutional court until