JOINTURE (OF., Fr. jointure, from Lat. junctura, a joining, from to join). A settlement made on a wife or on the husband and wife jointly, to be taken by her in lieu of dower (q.v.) if she survive her husband. It arose during the period of English history when the dower right of the married woman was in abeyance owing to the prevalence of the practice of conveying lands to the use of persons who were not the legal owners. (See DowER.) Jointure derived its name from the fact that it was a con veyance to the husband and wife as joint tenants with the benefit of survivorship. When the Statute of Uses (27 Hen. V111.. c. 10) trans ferred the legal title in lands to all who had the use or beneficial ownership, its immediate effect was to revive the dower right of the wife in all such lands. As this would have resulted in giving her a double provision, the same statute compelled her to choose between her jointure and her (lower. She could not have both. In this form the jointure has survived in England, and in many of the United States, though the practice of settling a jointure upon married women is less common in this country than in England.
The statute referred to gave a new complexion to the wife's jointure by a series of minute regu lations, prescribing the mode of its creation and certain essential conditions upon which its ex istence depended. According to this statute a legal jointure must have the following requisites: ) It must be expressly declared to be given to the wife in full satisfa'etion of her dower; (2) it must be real property; (3) it must be for her life at least; (4) it must be made to herself, and not to another in trust for her (5) it must be made to take effect immediately upon the death of the husband; (6) it must be made before the marriage. If all these requisites be complied with, her dower is barred, even though she did not consent to the settlement of the jointure nor to the amount thereof.
The expression equitable jointure is applied to a similar provision made for the wife under cir cumstances which do not entitle her to legal jointure as described above. It is, in effect, an
extension of the doctrine of jointure effected from motives of humanity and justice by courts of equity. Equitable jointure does not require so many formalities as legal jointure, but in a court of equity any provision made for the wife before the marriage, and then assented to and accepted by her as a jointure, may effectually bar her dower. In that court, proof of her assent given before the marriage obviates the necessity of showing that the formalities prescribed by the Statute of Jointures have been complied 'with. If she be a minor such. assent may be properly given by herself and her guardian or parent. If the jointure, whether legal or equitable in its na ture, he not settled upon the wife until after the marriage, it is no further binding upon her than that she must elect at the husband's death to take it in lieu of dower, or to take her dower. In some of the United States she is required by statute to make such election within a prescribed time— usually one year—after the husband's death. or if she do not so elect, she is conclusively pre sumed to have accepted the jointure. In some States also legal jointure is abolished. and only such as is equitable, i.e. made with her consent before marriage, can absolutely bar her dower. Substantially the same causes may operate to bar jointure as those which may defeat dower; but at law a wife does not lose her jointure, as she would her dower, by eloping and living in adultery, since it is not a mere incident of the marriage relation, but is an interest in land, vested in the woman as her sole and separate property. Consult Blackstone, Commentaries on the Lames of England. See DowER; HUSBAND AND WIFE; :MARRIAGE.