Definition of "feme"

TRESPASS FOR INTERMEDDLING WITH A FEME.There are some curious decisions in the old books regarding this point of law, with which it may be useful to be acquainted. In Br. Ab. Tresp. 40, it is said that a man may aid a feme who falls upon the ground from a horse, and so if she be sick, and the same if her baron would murder her. And the same per Rede if the feme would kill herself. And per Fineux a man may conduct a feme on a pilgrimage. So where a feme is going to market, it is lawful for another to suffer her to ride behind him on his horse to market. (Br. Ab. Tresp. 207.) And if a feme says that she is in jeopardy of her life by her baron, and prays him (a stranger) to carry her to a justice of the peace, he may lawfully do it. (Br. Ab. Tresp. 207.) But where any feme is out of the way, it is not lawful for a man to take her to his house, if she was not in danger of being lost in the night, or being drowned with water. (Br. Ab. Tresp. 213.)

1825, Henry Roscoe, Thomas Roscoe, Westminster Hall: Or, Professional Relics and Anecdotes of the Bar, Bench and Woolsack