Dower ad ostinm ecclesiæ

Dower at the church door or porch. An ancient kind of dower in England, where a man, (being tenant in fee-simple, of full age,) openly at the church door, where all marriages were formerly celebrated, after affiance made and troth plighted between them, endowed his wife with the whole of his lands, or such quantity as he pleased, at the same time specifying and ascertaining the same.

Litt. § 39; 2 Bl. Comm. 133.