People likely to need guardians -- people who were "legally incapable of conducting [their] affairs" -- might be children, minors, "lunatics," criminals, and some young women. It's not true that women's progress toward access to the courts, for example, has been steady. Through history some rights have come and gone. Women's rights in legal situations has varied according to the age and the women's socio-economic status.

This discussion is based on the definition of the word ward in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.