Age

The period of life at which persons become legally competent to do certain acts or perform certain functions which for want of age they are before incompetent to do or perform; the period is variously fixed by statute in dif Eerent jurisdictions.

\L. Fr. age, L. Lat. cetas.] A period of lue at which persons become legally competent to do certain acts, or enter into certain contracts, which before they were incompetent to do, or enter into.* The term is emphatically applied in the common law, to the period of twenty-one years in males and females, (called /«« age; Lat. plena cetas, Fr. pleine age;) on arriving at which they are said to he of age, and previously to be under age, (Lat. infra CBtatem; Fr. deins agS,) that is, infants or minors. Stat. Westm. 1, c. 22. Litt. sect. 103, 104. Co. Zdtt, 18 b. 1 Bl. Com. 463. 2 Kent's €am. 233. See ^tas, Full age. Besides full age, there are other periods at which males and females become of age for different purposes, such as the age of consent to marriage, which is fourteen years in males and twelve in females; the age of discretion, which is fourteen in both sexes, at which they may choose their guardians; age to make a will of personal es Uite, which at common law was fourteen in males and twelve in females; age to be an executor or executrix, which was seventeen years. 1 £1. Com. 463. Co. Litt. 78 b, 79 a. ffargr. Co. Litt. note 83, Hb. 2. 2 Steph. Com. 332. 2 Kent's Com. 78, 222, 242. There is also, in English law, the age at which males may take the oath of allegiance, which is twelve years; the age at which females may be given in marriage, which is seven, and the age at which they become entitled to dower, which is nine years. 1 Bl. Com, 463. See 2 Steph. Com. 332. As to the age of responsibility for criminal acts, see 4 Bl. Com. 22, 23. 2 Steph. Com. 331. Ma^pherson on Infants, 450.