Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume IX : Two Islands, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island

The study of Canadian legal history has seen a remarkable growth in the past decade, nowhere more so than in Atlantic Canada. Given its early settlement and some of the liberties taken with legal procedure there - as well as some creative interpretations of English law – the region is ripe for close study in the legal history field. This new collection examines that history on 'two islands:' Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The essays examine legal themes, developments, and disputes, and offer a framework for comparing ways of administering justice through the courts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The cases examined are particularly interesting for the light they throw on legal process and, especially, on the motives of the parties. Unlike in contemporary England and Upper Canada, the English precedents gave way to local needs as equitable regimes emerged that put family and community interests first, and treated all members of the family in ways tailored to their personal needs and circumstances. This volume, which includes a number of essays examining women's legal status and access to the courts, is a comprehensive and fascinating examination of legal history in two Canadian provinces. Contents 5 Foreword 9 Acknowledgments 11 Contributors 13 Introduction 15 Part One: Historiography 33 1. The Legal Historiography of Newfoundland 33 2. The Legal Historiography of Prince Edward Island 53 Part Two: The Administration of Justice 63 3. Politics and the Administration of Justice on Early Prince Edward Island, 1769–1805 63 4. Surgeons and Criminal Justice in Eighteenth-Century Newfoundland 93 5. The Supreme Court on Circuit: Northern District, Newfoundland, 1826–33 129 Part Three: Property Law and Inheritance 161 6. Formal and Informal Law in Two New Lands: Land Law in Newfoundland and New South Wales under Francis Forbes 161 7. Defining Property for Inheritance: The Chattels Real Act of 1834 206 8. ‘The Duty of Every Man’: Intestacy Law and Family-Inheritance Practice in Prince Edward Island, 1828–1905 231 Part Four: Legal Status and Access to the Courts by Women 251 9. ‘Now You Vagabond [W]hore I Have You’: Plebeian Women, Assault Cases, and Gender Relationships on the Southern Avalon, 1750–1860 251 10. Women in the Courts of Placentia District, 1757–1823 286 11. ‘Out of Date in a Good Many Respects’: The Legal Status and Judicial Treatment of Newfoundland Women, 1945–9 314 Part Five: Litigation in Chancery and at Common Law 337 12. Bowley v. Cambridge: A Colonial Jarndyce and Jarndyce 337 13. The Judges Go to Court: The Cashin Libel Trial of 1947 371 Index 405 PARTIAL CONTENTS: v. 3. Nova Scotia v. 5. Crime and criminal justice v. 6. British Columbia and the Yukon v. 7. Inside the law : Canadian law firms in historical perspective v. 8. In honour of R.C.B. Risk v. 9. Two islands : Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island / edited by Christopher English. Three pre-eminent markers signal the historiography of an emerging discipline of legal history in Newfoundland.