feme sole

The Oxford English Dictionary gives this as the primary spelling although it lists femme sole as a variant.  It translates into English as ‘single woman’. This description popped up in a Sydney title deed of 1958.  This is an historical legal term dating back to British law of the 1600s. It is one of the many legal terms which the British acquired as a result of the Norman conquest. A feme sole is an unmarried woman, in particular, one who is divorced or widowed. In this sense a feme sole contrasts with a spinster who has never married.  A feme sole might also be a married woman who has a legal right to her own property or business.  In this sense it contrasts with feme covert, a woman who has no legal status or rights to property, being regarded as under the protection and authority of her husband.

An odd little bit of legal history captured in a Sydney title deed!