of Lincoln, it is said: "When any of the brethren and sistren
die, the rest shall give a halfpenny each to buy bread to be given
to the poor, for the soul's sake of the dead." The Grocers Company
admitted women after marriage to membership in their fraternity, and
they "enter and are looked upon as of the fraternity for ever, and are
assisted and made as one of us; and after the death of the husband,
the widow shall come to the dinner and pay 40d. if she is able."

In the fourteenth century it was by no means unusual for women, even
though they were married, to carry on successfully large commercial
enterprises in their own name and by their individual effort. In the
_Liber Albus of London_, which was compiled in the fourteenth century,
there occurs an ordinance relating to this subject: "and where a
woman _coverte de baron_ follows craft within the said city by herself
apart, with which the husband in no way intermeddles, such woman shall
be bound as a single woman as to all that concerns her said craft.
And if the husband and wife are impleaded in such case, the wife shall
plead as a single woman in the Court of Record, and shall have her law
and other advantages by way of plea just as a single woman. And if she
is condemned, she shall be committed to prison until she shall have
made satisfaction; and neither the husband nor his goods shall in such
case be charged or interfered with." It will be seen from this that
women were accorded wide liberty in the conduct of business and,
whether married or single, preserved their independence of action and
control of property. The right that woman enjoyed before the courts of
being sued and of suing was, however, a negative one.

The distresses to which women were subjected by the peculiar form of
liberty which they enjoyed is illustrated by the following quotation
from an enactment in the Statute of Laborers in the reign of Edward
III: "Every man and woman of our realm of England, of what condition
he be, free or bond, able of body and within the age of threescore
years, not living in merchandise, not exercising any craft nor having
of his own whereof he may live, nor proper land about whose tillage
he may himself occupy, and serving any other, if he be in convenient
service (his estate considered), be required to serve, he shall be
bounden to serve him which so shall him require.... And if any such
man or woman being so required to serve will not the same do,... he
shall be