Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First, Chapter the Seventeenth: Of Guardian and Ward

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So that full age in male or female, is twenty one years, which age is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth[q]; who till that time is an infant, and so stiled in law.

Referencing norms: CommonLawAgeCompletedOnDayPrecedingAnniversary, CommonLawAgeNotYetCompleted, EnglandBeforeCommencementFollowsCommonLaw, FullAgeAtCommonLawIsTwentyOne

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2. LET us next consider the ward, or person within age, for whose assistance and support these guardians are constituted by law; or who it is, that is said to be within age. The ages of male and female are different for different purposes. A male at _twelve_ years old may take the oath of allegiance; at _fourteen_ is at years of discretion, and therefore may consent or disagree to marriage, may choose his guardian, and, if his discretion be actually proved, may make his testament of his personal estate; at _seventeen_ may be an executor; and at _twenty one_ is at his own disposal, and may aliene his lands, goods, and chattels. A female also at _seven_ years of age may be betrothed or given in marriage; at _nine_ is entitled to dower; at _twelve_ is at years of maturity, and therefore may consent or disagree to marriage, and, if proved to have sufficient discretion, may bequeath her personal estate; at _fourteen_ is at years of legal discretion, and may choose a guardian; at _seventeen_ may be executrix; and at _twenty one_ may dispose of herself and her lands. So that full age in male or female, is twenty one years, which age is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth[q]; who till that time is an infant, and so stiled in law. Among the antient Greeks and Romans _women_ were never of age, but subject to perpetual guardianship[r], unless when married, "_nisi convenissent in manum viri_:" and, when that perpetual tutelage wore away in process of time, we find that, in females as well as males, full age was not till twenty five years[s]. Thus, by the constitutions of different kingdoms, this period, which is merely arbitrary, and _juris positivi_, is fixed at different times. Scotland agrees with England in this point; (both probably copying from the old Saxon constitutions on the continent, which extended the age of minority "_ad annum vigesimum primum, et eo usque juvenes sub tutelam reponunt_[t]") but in Naples they are of full age at _eighteen_; in France, with regard to marriage, not till _thirty_; and in Holland at _twenty five_.