edsmail@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
had this to say in
news:k6bkj.550$2Z1.320@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Can some tell me what the age of majority was in Quebec (and its
> predecessors) for both males and females down through the years from
> 1608 to the present and in what years did it change?
> Ed
>
Regarding marriageable age, girls were considered of marriageable age at
12, while IIRC, boys still waited till 18 (at least that is the youngest
I've seen). As far as other adult responsibilities (property holding,
militia service, etc.), I don't know. I've seen records of young men
joining the army at 16.
As far as marriage ages, I have seen a few females married at 12, while
few
men married before 25, probably because of the need to have established
themselves financially before taking a wife.
With females it's harder to tell, because it's hard to know what rights
they had in 17th-century France and French Canada. I have an ancestor,
Anne Langlois, whose birth was recorded 31 August 1637 and who married
Jean
Pelletier on 9 November 1649 at the age of 12 years, two months, and nine
days. The groom was 22.
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