AHPB. J. Prats y Cabré. Secundus liber ultimatorum voluntatum. 1780-1785, f. 53 r.

Margarita Call y Pedrals disposes in her will of her goods and those of her husband, a tailor by trade, who on dying gave Margarita this power. The testatrix names her daughters and son equally as her inheritors.

In the name of God- Amen. I, Margarita Call y Pedrals, widow of Jaume Call, tailor, citizen of Barcelona, legitimate and natural daughter of Esteve Pedrals, peasant of the town of Bagà, bishopric of Solsona, and Eulalia Pedrals y Sastre, deceased married couple. Of some bodily indisposition, but of sound judgement, memory and word; wishing to dispose of my goods: I put in order my final will: In which I choose as executors of this last wish of mine the Illustrious and very Reverend Sir Doctor Joan Baptista Gualdo, canon priest of the Holy Church Cathedral of this town, the Reverend Sir Doctor Fortià Camps, incumbent priest and vicar curate of the parish Church of Santa María del Mar of the same town. To Esteve Call, teacher of elementary education, citizen of the same town, my son, to Eulalia Miquel y Call, wife of Benet Miquel, Taylor, citizen of Barcelona, to Teresa Call, maiden inhabitant of the fore-mentioned town, both of them daughters of mine; and to Miquel Buxadell, tailor, citizen of the same: To whom, in the great part, and to each of them, in absence, excused or missing the others, I give full powers to carry out the disposition of my will, in conformity with what they will find laid out here:

First of all I want all of my debts and offences to be paid, and compensated for from my goods in the greatest brevity possible, only the truth of the fact being taken into consideration.

I chose the burial tomb of my corpse in the said Parish Church of Santa María del Mar, desiring that it be made of the so-called general simple kind, spending on it that of my goods which is necessary.

Likewise I dispose, as soon as possible, after my death, for the repose of my soul, that sixty masses with prayers for the dead at the end are held, of charity six sueldos each one, that is, twenty-five at the aforementioned Parish Church of Santa Maria del Mar -another twenty-five at that of the convent of the Father San Francisco- and the rest at the altar of Saint Christ in agony erected in the Church, or chapel of Santa Marta, all belonging to this town.

Likewise I declare that the box and all the clothes with the other things in it that the said Teresa Call, maiden, daughter of mine, has and keeps for her use, is all her own, since she made and acquired it with her money, which she has earned and earns with my agreement and while the named Jaume, her father, was alive, she earned it with his blessing for her own work: and therefore she may dispose of it as she wishes.

Likewise I pre-bequeath the same Teresa Call, maiden, daughter of mine, all the clothing of my use and service, both the good, and the ordinary, whatever its quality may be; and also, the Image of Our Lady of Carmen, placed on a showplace (but not this one); all are to be at her free disposition.

And in the remainder of my goods, present and future, rights and actions, that might be of my competence in any place for any titles or causes; like those I also take from the above mentioned Jaume Call, my deceased husband, that exist, using, in relation to these, the powers that he conceded to me in his last will, executed, in the power of the Doctor Josep Ponsico, numbered public notary of Barcelona, on the thirtieth of January seventeen sixty nine: I establish as my universal and particular Inheritors respectively the above-mentioned Esteve Call, my son and the already cited Eulalia Miquel y Call and Teresa Call, maiden, my daughters, namely, to the said Eulalia, twenty five Barcelona pounds only, acting at the same time as payment and supplement of her paternal and maternal legitima, part of my betrothal money, and other rights that she may pretend to have over my goods and those of her deceased father; given that, in the moment of the contract of her marriage and after she was married she was given and handed over by her above-mentioned father and by me, much more than corresponded to her, but what I have very present is that the said Eulalia, daughter of mine, should in any case have: the said twenty-five pounds I want her to be paid by her named brother, and sister, the said Esteve Call and Teresa Call. As far as the other goods and rights of mine and of my deceased husband are concerned, they are for the sharing out in equal parts between the two at their free disposition: I declare that it is my desire that the fore-mentioned Teresa, daughter of mine, in any case, take the advice and opinion of the fore-mentioned Illustrious Don Joan Baptista Gualdo Presbítero, Reverend Doctor Fortià Camps, Priest, Miquel Boxadell, and Josep Ponsico, notary, who I pick out as counsellors, for her greater guidance; trusting that the said Gentlemen will be happy to accept this charge, as I earnestly beg of them.

This is my will, with which I revoke any other made by me up until today; wanting my present will to prevail in the best way that the law permits, and that copies of it are not given out until after my death. As a witness of which I sign, in the town of Barcelona, twenty sixth day of the month of August of the year of the birth of our Lord, seventeen eighty one: Being present as witnesses asked by myself Joan Baptista Gerissola, citizen of this town, and Cayetano Texidor y Matheu, clerk also inhabitant of it.

Margarida Call y Pedrals

In power of Me, Joan Prats y Cabré, notary, who testifies to knowing the testatrix.

En nom de Deu- Amen. Jo Margarida Call y Pedrals viuda de Jaume Call sastre ciutadà de Barcelona, filla legitima, y natural de Esteve Pedrals pages de la vila de Bagà, bisbat de Solsona, y de Eulalia Pedrals y Sastre, conjuges difunts. Estant ab alguna indisposicio corporal, pero ab libre judici, memoria, y paraula; Volent disposar de mos bens: ordeno mon ultim testament: Del qual elegesch marmessors, y éxecutors de aquesta postrera voluntat mia, al Iltre., y molt Rnt Señor Doctor Joan Baptista Gualdo, Pbre canonge de la Santa Iglesia Cathedral de esta ciutat, al Rnt Señor Doctor Fortià Camps Pbre beneficiat, y vicari curat de la Iglesia Parroquial de Sta Maria del Mar de la mateixa, A Esteve Call mestre de Primeras Lletras ciutadà de la propria ciutat mon fill, á Eulalia Miquel y Call muller de Benet Miquel sastre ciutadà de ella, á Theresa Call donsella habitant en la referida ciutat, las dos fillas mias; y á Miquel Buxadell sastre ciutadà de la mateixa: Als quals, á la major part, y a cada un de ells, en absencia, escusa, ó falta dels altres, dono ple poder pera cumplir aquesta mia disposicio testamentaria, conforme trobaran ordenat:

Primerament vull que tots mos deutes e injurias sian pagats y esmenadas de mos bens; ab la brevedat possible, conciderada sola la veritat del fet.

Elegesch la sepultura fahedora á mon cadaver en la sobredita Parroquial Iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, volent sia feta de la classe dita general simple gastant per ella de mos bens, lo que sia menester.

Item disposo, que lo mes prest se puga, despres de mon obit, per descans de ma ánima, sian celebradas sexanta missas ab absolta, á la fi de caritat sis sous cada una, es á saber, vint, y sinch en la referida Iglesia Parroquial de Sta Maria del Mar= altras vint, y sinch en la del convent del P. St. Francesc= y las restants deuen lo altar del St. Christo en la agonia erigit en la Iglesia, o capella de Sta. Martha totas de esta ciutat.

Item Declaro que la caixa, y tota la roba ab las demes cosas compresas en ella que la sobredita Theresa Call donsella ma filla te, y guarda per son us; es tot seu propri, per haverlo ella fet y adquirit de sos diners que ha guañat y guaña ab consentiment meu y mentres lo sobredit Jaume son pare vivia guanyava de voluntat de est ab son propri treball: Y per tant pot disposarne com li aparega.

Item prellego á la mateixa Theresa Call donsella filla mia tota la roba de mon us y servey, tant bona, com ordinaria de qualsevol qualitat sia; y a mes, la Imatge de Nostra Sra del Carme collocada en una escaparata (pero no esta) tot a sa lliure disposicio.

Y en los restants bens meus, present y esdevenidors, drets y accions, que pugan competirme en qualsevol part per qualsevols titols, o causas; com tambe en los que pren del referit Jaume Call mon difunt marit, que existescan, usant, en quant á estos, de la facultat concedida per ell á mi, en son ultim testament atorgat en poder del Dt. Joseph Ponsico notari publich de numero de Barcelona á trenta de Janer mil setcents sexanta y nou: Instituesch á mi Hereus universals, y particular respectivamt. al sobredit Esteve Call mon fill y á las nomenadas Eulalia Miquel y Call, y Theresa Call donsella, fillas mias, es a saber á dita Eulalia en quant á vint, y sinch lliuras barcelonesas tantsolamt., servintli al mateix temps estas en paga, y suplemt. de sas llegitimas paterna y materna, part de mon esponsalici, ÿ demes drets, que puga pretendrer en mos bens y en los de son difunt pare; respecte, que en lo temps del contracte de son matrimoni y despres de casada li fou donat y entregat per lo referit son pare, y per mi molt mes del que li corresponia, lo que tinc molt present com no pot deixar de tenirho la mateixa Eulalia ma filla: Las quals vint, y sinch lliuras vull li sian pagadas per los nomenats germà y germana seus: Ja dits Esteve Call y Theresa Call, en quan als demes bens y drets meus, y de mon difunt marit, per iguals parts entre los dos á sa libre disposicio: Declarant esser ma voluntat que la referida Theresa filla mia en qualsevol cas prenga lo consell y parer dels sobre dits Iltre. Dor. Joan Bapta. Gualdo Pbre, Rnt Dor Fortià Camps Pbre, Miquel Boxadell, y Joseph Ponsico notari, los quals li assenyalo per consulents, per son major acert; confiant que dits Sors tindran á be acceptar est encarrech, com los suplico encaridament.

Aquesta es la mia voluntat, ab la qual revoco qualsevols especies de ella fetas per mi fins vuy; volent que mon actual testament prevalga en lo millor modo que de dret tinga lloch, sens donarsen copia fins despres de mon obit. En testimoni de las quals cosas axis lo firmo en la ciutat de Barcelona á vint y sis dias del mes de Agost any del naixement del Señor mil setcents vuitanta hu: Essent presents per testimonis pregats per mi mateixa Joan Baptista Gerissola ciutadà de esta ciutat; y Cayetano Texidor y Matheu escrivent habitant en ella.

Margarida Call y Pedrals

En poder de Mi Joan Prats ÿ Cabrér notari, qui dono fé coneixer à la testadora.

Legislation is at the same time a component of the discourse of power and a weapon with which to impose or maintain a given social structure. That is why the study of laws and their materialisation is unavoidable in order to know how a society is structured from the perspective of power. With regards to sexual difference, it becomes an important element through which to know how the legal regulations wanted, not always successfully, to regularise women’s lives, especially emphasising family and inheritance law, and imposing silence, or exclusion, in the law that, as Milagros Rivera states, referring to public law in the Middle Ages, does not affect women.

In the modern period we have to consider both the civil and ecclesiastical legislation. The civil legislation looks after diverse aspects of family law, but especially the patrimonial aspects. Canon law made regulations mainly in relation to marriage. The continuous conflicts between the two tribunals on the subject of family law and the interest of the state in legislating over patrimonial transmission, and therefore in controlling in some way the family community, denotes the interest of the institutions of power in controlling sectors of society that easily escaped them on entering the day-to-day sphere.

When the transmission of wealth is spoken of, generally it is material goods and the transmission of patrimony that is referred to. Under the patriarchal symbolic order, the laws of inheritance do no more than guarantee the functioning of the social structure as established, forming part, at the same time as complementing, the institution of marriage. It is about guaranteeing the transmission of patrimony down a patrilineal line. The rules of inheritance and succession lead directly, as Christine Delphy defined, into patriarchal relationships in which women are prevented from inheriting in equal conditions with regards to their male bothers. Women become necessary elements –because of their reproductive function- but are not beneficiaries of the hereditary transmission. In Catalonia this is materialised through the institution of the inheritor (hereu) or heredamiento that transforms the male unigeniture and primogeniture into universal law. The legal mechanisms give men a privileged position through the marriage contracts and the precedences. Women could become inheritors (pubillas) when the highs and lows of demography were favourable for them, that is, that there were no male brothers in the family, they were the eldest of the sisters or that their male brothers died. The rest had to make do with the amount of the dowry that they would receive on marrying.

However, the transmission of wealth, above all for the families where what was at stake was survival, is not limited to the big material goods nor even just material goods. What is more, in spite of its universalistic pretension of penetration, the law did not reach all aspects of daily life, so that practice often differed from the legal discourse. Whilst it is true that the few rights of women on part of the law were not always respected, it is not less true that they in turn made use of a law, in principle discriminatory for them, for their own benefit. In spite of the difficulties women were an active part of society in all aspects - cultural, social, economic, creating different types of networks and relationships amongst themselves. Some were recognised during the period in which they lived and went beyond the limits placed on their independence.

The transmission of wealth between women can be considered as a form of gine-coherence and it can also be a way of maintaining genealogy alive via the maternal. The transmission of wealth between women can have diverse readings and implies different degrees of solidarity between women.

Firstly, the transmission of wealth between women indicates to us the existence of a relationship that escapes the patriarchal symbolic order and that introduces us, more or less clearly, into the symbolic order of the mother, given that they are relationships that remain outside the limits of the patriarchy.

During the Modern Age, the notarial and legal documents through which we can follow the practice of the transmission of wealth between women or from women, reveal or allow us to intuit the relationships between them, such as between mothers-daughters, between aunts and nieces or between sisters, sister-in-laws and other women relatives, but also between friends or between neighbours. These relationships indicate to us degrees of important complicity between women, who created diverse networks of solidarity and mutual assistance that can be glimpsed both in daily life and in death, and that would contribute to consolidating the role of women as essential elements for the survival of they themselves and their families, giving them the capacity to provide subsistence both in cycles of expansion and in difficult moments and crises.

The relationships between women, symbolic and real, that can be gathered from these documents are generally prominent between mothers and daughters, which would make up a first type of relevant relationship that is easily documented, to which we can add the relationships between women relatives and between women without a kin relationship, which would make up a second and third type of relationship.

From this it is possible to affirm that the transmission of wealth is not just limited to the transmission of inheritance, but also to these practices and/or gifts between women in daily life and to the transmission of such practices and networks of relationships between women, both in the same generations and on an inter-generational level. Women would exercise matronage with their protected ones and sorority with their women neighbours, friends, and sisters.

In the ancien régime, making a will was a usual practice on all social levels. It was about putting the things of life in order after death, and, at the same time, was part of a ritual that surrounded death, impregnating it with a strong religious sentiment.

Mostly, the assets that women possessed were relatively few and were limited to the dowry. This statement was not always explicitly made, but rather can be deduced from the kinds of legacies: small amounts of money, clothes and jewels. Some women will makers did make themselves clear in this sense and assure that the goods that are the object of the will come from their dowry.

On some occasions, however, an allusion is made to the will-makers condition of inheritor. On other occasions the will-makers are rich or possess real estate, even if this only consists of the house that they live in. For example, in the will made by María Eulalia Pi y Jaquet in the year 1796 she states that she has a "dentelle business", that she leaves to one of her daughters, and this does not seem to represent the greater part of her assets, given that the legacy is not made to the one that she names as the inheritor.

Women tended to make wills as widows from which data and other we can deduce that they enjoyed a greater freedom to make wills than other women, above all the married ones, on having freed themselves from the marital tutelage.

One of the unusual things that can be observed on beginning to read wills made by women is the apparition of other women as testamentary executrix, generally daughters, daughters-in-law, or other women relatives. The frequency of women’s apparition as executrix is higher in the wishes of more recent, especially when the noble women make wills.

In spite of the fact that the laws, custom, superstition and other causes induced and/or obliged women to follow the norms that discriminated against them, there often existed cracks through which the norm was violated or twisted. Women repeatedly tried to get past the norms. In the wills made by women during the Modern Age, when the mothers make use of their matria potestad and name a woman as inheritor, most of these are daughters of the maker of the will, who are named as inheritors because of a lack of male children, but there are notable exceptions where they decide not to follow the patriarchal rules of succession and the inheriting daughter does have male brothers. On occasions the women will-makers name their sons and daughters as inheritors in equal parts, and on others the son receives a third of the goods and the daughter two-thirds.

But where the specificities of the wills made by women are most noticeable is in the legacies. Women, even when they followed established norms when it came to making their will, always had a space to remember other women. Here we can see the great dispersion of the few goods that women had in favour of other women, direct and indirect relatives, such as aunts, sisters, nieces..., and also in favour of other women without bonds of kin. These legacies are generally humble objects, of little value, but which may have had a key strategic importance in the face of survival. They reinforce relationships of kin that are real and fictitious; in reality, that are networks of feminine solidarity, whose main objective was to ensure the survival of women and their families.

Margarita Call y Pedrals signs her will before a notary in Barcelona, 20th August 1781, disposing of her assets and those of her husband, who on dying gave her such a faculty in his will – dated 1769. In the said will, Margarita makes use of the matria potestad and decides to make a sharing out in equal parts of the inheritance between her son Esteve and her maiden daughter, Teresa. The will-maker has another daughter to whom she makes a legacy of 25 pounds as a supplement of legítima and who is constituted as an inheritor with her sister and brother but only for the said amount, since, according to Margarita, her part was already given to her as a dowry when she married. What is more, Margarita gives Teresa another legacy, made up of clothes and an image of Our Lady of Carmen. This is an act of feminine authority in which Margarita violates the prevailing guidelines of the patriarchal laws of succession in benefit of her daughters, and particularly her daughter Teresa.

The patriarchal laws appear, in theory, as an obstacle to feminine freedom. The need to adapt to the values marked out by the codes of honour would get mixed up with the fact that these and other norms would never obtain the desired success and would always find themselves with a more or less patent or diffuse resistance. The masculine laws and codes of honour would attempt to delineate, for the women in modern Spain, their margins for action, margins that would impose limitations on the women’s capacity to act in different areas: in the legal area, through the impossibility of possessing a complete legal personality; in the area of work, closing women’s tasks into some concrete spaces and not giving them social recognition; in the public sphere, by denying them the use of the word and of writing, etc.

However, the barriers imposed would often be got over. The ambiguity in the borders or boundaries that have limited throughout history what has been considered honourable or not, facilitated the configuration of a dividing line which was sufficiently wide, and at the same time allowed for a margin to manoeuvre that women used for their personal development and/or their own desire. Women were capable of using a discriminatory legal system for their own benefit. Women took from patriarchal law what was of interest to them for their projects. For example, they remained as usufructuaries after having married again, or even having done so before the year of mourning had passed or keeping themselves in a de facto separation whilst a sentence that might never arrive was to be produced – in fact the processes of marriage separation constituted a strategy for women with the objective of escaping from the marital tutelage and obtaining greater independence.

The civil processes of the Royal Audience shows the complexity of the relationships between women and between them and the law, on giving a voice to many women who could not appear in other kinds of legal documents. In these processes women show in great part their desires, their bonds with other women, their relationships of love and non-love, sometimes the bond between classes.

For younger secondary school students:

Read the translation or a part of it previously chosen by the teacher. Point out the type of relationships between women that are given in the text and look for similarities in the families and frameworks of the neighbourhood of each pupil.

For older school students or first year university students:

Compare the text with a will signed by a man, particularly if the latter is an inheritor. In order to do so, go to the local archives or to the archive of protocols to choose a text of the same period.