Protection order, Police Court form number 184, dated 1879
Printer unknown, letterpress, 333 x 208mm (Rickards Collection, University of Reading, Desertion)
In 1876 Matilda Wade of Bermondsey was deserted by her husband John. This form – a protection order dated 1879 – ruled that he could not make any legal claim upon her money or property.
The document reflects the invisible legal status of married women in the nineteenth century. In the words of a frequently rehearsed later observation: in law husband and wife were one person, and that person was the husband. This protection order offered some security for the abandoned woman: Matilda Wade was now to be treated ‘as if she were a Feme Sole’ – having the status of an adult unmarried woman, so her money and property now belonged to her, and she could make contracts in her own name.
The form’s language is typical of legal documents of the period. The text is made up of one main paragraph with two sentences, set out plainly over 25 lines with around 16 words per line. The first sentence, starting with ‘Whereas’ (which we read as ‘It being the case that’) recites the matter at hand. The second sentence, beginning ‘Now I,’ states the directions of the court, gives its order. Each sentence contains seven completion tasks, to identify persons, places, and dates.
All this is followed by a brief statement of authentication and signature – here completed by a magistrate, Wyndham Slade, but the document’s blanks are otherwise filled by another hand, possibly one of the clerks of the court. Space left over after filling has been ruled to prevent alterations or additions.
The document projects its authority relatively simply: the royal coat of arms at head, the crown seal and stamps at tail. Questions of functional ‘use’ seem hardly appropriate to this, the symbolic record of a legal act which changed the status of a person.
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