According to canon law of the time, a person attained the age of majority
at
21 unless emancipated from their parents at an earlier age. Again
according
to canon law, girls could marry at 12 and boys at 14.
"Patrick Rock" <NoReply@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:Xns9A36E6E5BD371diogenesnospamcom@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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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