DOWER (from Fr. dower, to endow). The provision which the law makes for a widow out of the lands or tenements of her hus band, for her support and the nurture of her children. co. Litt. 30 a; 2 Bla. Com. 130; 4 Kent 35; Washb. R. P. 146.
There were five species of dower in Eng land (Littleton § 1. Dower ad ostium ecclesice, where a man of full age, on coming to the church-door to be married, endowed' his wife of a certain portion of his lands.
2. Dower ex assensu patrie, which differed from dower ad ostium ecclesice only in being made out of the lands of the husband'a fa ther and with his consent.
& Dower by common law, where the wid ow was entitled during her life to a third part of all the lands and tenements of which her husband was seised in law or in fact of an inheritable estate, at any time during the coverture, and which any issue she might have had might by possibility have inherited.
4. Dower by custom, where a widow be came entitled to a specified portion of her husband's lands in consequence of some lo cal or particular custom.
5' Dower de la plus belle (de la plias beale), where the widow on suing the guard ian in chivalry for dower, was required by him to endow herself of the fairest portion of any lands she might hold as guardian in socage, and thus release from dower the lands of her husband held in chivalry. This was abolished along with the military tenures, of which it was a consequence 2 Bla. Com. 132, n.
Of these, the first and second were created by the act of the parties, the third and fourth by the law. The two classes represent the old order and the new. 3 Holdsw. Hist E. L. 157. In later days the former class was superseded by the latter class or by jointures.
By the Dower Act in England (1833) the widow is entitled to dower out of equitable estates as well as legal, but only out of those estates to which the husband is beneficially entitled at his death.
Dower in the United States, although reg ulated by statutes differing from each other in many respects, conforms substantially to that at the common law ; 1 Washb. R. P. 149 ; see Schoul. Hus. & W. 455.
Where a statute provided that no in dower be allotted to the wife on the death of her husband, it took away a wife's in choate right of dower in lands previously alienated by her husband without joining her in the deed; Richards v. Land Co., 47 Fed. 854; the inchdate right of the wife is not such a vested right or interest as cannot be taken away by legislative action; Rich ards v. Land Co., 54 Fed. 209, 4 C. C. A. 290.
Of what estates the wife is dowable. Her right to dower is always determined by the laws of the place where the property is sit uate; Duncan v. Dick, Walker (Miss.) 281; O'Ferrall v. Simplot, 4 Ia. 381; Lamar v. Scott, 3 Strobh. (S. C.) 562.
She is entitled to one-third of all lands, tenements, or hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, of which her husband may have been seized during the coverture, in fee or In tail; 2 Bla. Corn. 131; Gorham v. Daniels, 23 Vt. 611.
She was not dowable of a term for years, however long; Park, Dow. 47; Spangler v. Stanler, 1 Md. Ch. Dec. 36. , The inheritance must be an entire one, and one of which the husband may have cor poreal seisin or the right of Immediate cor poreal seisin; Plowd. 506; Caruthers v. Wil son, 1 Sm. & M. (Miss.) 527.
Dower does not attach In an estate held in joint tenancy ; but the widow of the survivor has dower; Co. Litt. § 45; Mayburry v. Brien, 15 Pet. (U. S.) 21, 10 L. Ed. 646. But where the principle of survivorship is abOlished, this disability does not exist; Da vis v. Logan, 9 Dana (Ky.) 185; Reed v. Kennedy, 2 Strobh. (S. C.) 67.
An estate in common is subject to dower; Wilkinson v. Parish, 3 Paige, Ch. (N. Y.) 653; Totten v. Stuyvesant, 3 Edw. Ch. (N. Y.) 500; Pynchon v. Lester, 6 Gray (Mass.) 314; CM v. Cllft, 87 Tenn. 17, 9 S. W. 198, 360; Parrish v. Parrish, 88 Va. 529, 14 S. E. 325; Chew v. Chew, 1 Md. 172. Bilt the dow er in land owned by the husband in common with others is divested by partition thereof in a suit to which the husband is a party, though the wife is not joined ; Holley v. Glover, 36 S. C. 404, 15 S. E. 605, 16 L. R.