1082

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

interest or estate had been sold, conveyed, assigned, mortgaged,
leased, transferred or delivered, or devised, or bequeathed, by
such husband directly to such third person. And the fact of
such previous sale, conveyance, assignment, mortgage, lease or
delivery by each husband, directly or indirectly, to his wife, or
the recital thereof, in any instrument of writing whatever,
shall not hereafter be deemed or taken at law or in equity, to
give or impart, nor to have given or imparted notice to any
third person, his heir, executors, administrators or assigns, of
the existence, or of the possibility or probability of the exist-
ence of any subsisting creditor or creditors of such husband.
3. It shall not be necessary for a married woman to have a

Not neces-
sary to have
a trustee.

trustee to secure to her the sole and separate use of her prop-
erty ; but if she desires it, she may make a trustee by deed, or
she may apply to a court of equity and have a trustee ap-
pointed, in which appointment the uses and trusts for which
the trustee holds the property shall be declared.

Hold their
property.

4. Married women shall hold all their property, of every
description, for their separate use, as fully as if they were
unmarried, and shall have all the power to dispose of by deed,
mortgage, lease, will or any other instrument that husbands
have to dispose of their property, and no more ; provided, that
no disposition of her real or personal property, or any portion
thereof, by deed, mortgage, bill of sale or other conveyance,
shall be valid if made by a married woman under eighteen
years of age, unless her husband shall unite therein.
5. Married women shall have power to engage in any busi-

Power to
engage in
business,
etc.

ness, and to contract, whether engaged in business or not, and
to sue upon their contracts, and also to sue for the recovery,
security or protection of their property, and for torts com-
mitted against them, as fully as if they were unmarried ; con-
tracts may also be made with them, and they may also be sued
separately upon their contracts, whether made before or during
marriage, and for wrongs independent of contract committed
by them before or during their marriage, as fully as if they
were unmarried ; and upon judgments recovered against them
execution may be issued as if they were unmarried ; nor shall
any husband be liable upon any contract made by his wife in
her own name and upon her own responsibility, nor for any
tort committed separately by her out of his presence, without
his participation or sanction.

Rights of
widows.

6. A widow shall be entitled to dower in lands held by
equitable as well as legal title in the husband at any time dur-
ing the coverture, whether held by him at the time of his