DOWER (Lat. dos, in Domesday, maritagium), "in the common law, is taken for that portion of lands or tenements which the wife hath for terme of her life of the lands or tenements of her husband after his decease, for the sustenance of herselfe, and the nurture and education of her children."—Coke upon, Litt. 30 b. Formerly, a widow's right to D. was protected by the law, and could only be defeated by certain prescribed means; but by 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 105, a husband, by simple conveyance of his land, or by burdening it with debt, may defeat the right of his widow to dower. He may• effect the same purpose by introducing into the deed of conveyence to himself, or into his last will and testament, a simple declaration of his intention to bar his widow's right of dower. Though the right of D. has thus lost much of its importance, the history of ' this right forms an interesting chapter in the English common law. In feudal times, when personal property was small, a widow depended almost exclusively on her right to D. for maintenance after her husband's death. Three things, says lord Coke, 31 a, were necessary for D.—marriage, seisiu, and the death of the husband. The usual amount of D. was a third of the land in which the husband died seised; but, by custom, as gavelkind (q.v.), it amounted sometimes to a half, and in certain cases to the whole. —Litt. s. 37. Besides D. at common law, and D. by custom, three other species of D. are noticed by Littleton—viz., dower de la plus belle, s. 47; dower ad ostium eeclesice, s. 39; and dower ex assensu patris, s. 40. The first of these was where a man died possessed of lands held partly by knight's service (q.v.), and partly by socage (q.v.), leaving a child under 14, the widow could be compelled, as guardian in socage, to take her D. out of
the socage lands. This species of D. fell with the military tenures by 12 Car. II. c. 24. The last two species of D. mentioned above were both made at the time of the celebra tion of the marriage. Dower ad ostium ecele,sice was when the husband, being of full age, at the church door specially endowed his wife in the whole or apart of his lands. In dower ex asscnsu patris, the bridegroom's father being alive, the same form was observed, with the sanction and consent of the father. In both of these cases the widow was entitled, on death of her husband, to enter at once upon the laud without any assign ment. These species of D. were abolished by 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 105, s. 13. In D. at common law, and D. by custom, which are still suffered to exist, a widow cannot enforce her claim until certain lands have been assigned to her for her D. by the heir or by writ of the Litt. 34 b. In early times, it was necessary to pay a duty to the lord for this assignment, but this exaction was abolished by Magna Charta. In its general principles, the right to D. in England resembled the right oeterce (q.v.) in Scotland. In both countries, the amount allowed by law wa's a third of the husband's lands, and in both a certain process was necessary before the widow could enforce her right. A woman forfeits her right to D. by eloping from her husband (13 Edw. I. c. 34), by the treason of her husband, by divorce a rineulo, but not by divorce a mensa et thoro. The right to D. was also barred by levying a fine (q.v.) of lands, by conveyance to uses in bar of D., and by the settlement of a jointure upon the wife. See FINE, JOEcTURE.