Dowager

A widow endowed; one who has a jointure. In England, this is a title or addition given to the widows of princes, dukes, earls, and other noblemen. DOWER is the right of a woman ina third part of all the lands and tenements in fee simple, fee tail general, or as heir in special tail, of which her deceased husband was seised, either in deed or in law, at ‘any time during the coverture, and of which any issue she might have had, might by possibility have been heir. Lite § 36. Vide Estate in Dower. This is dower at common law. Besides, this in England there are three other species of dower now subsisting; namely, dower by custom, which is, where a widow becomes entitled toa certain portion of her husband’s lands in consequence of some local or particular custom: thus by the custom of gavel-kind, the widow is entitled to a moiety of all the lands and tenements, which her husband held by that tenure.

— Dower ad ostium ecclesta. when a man of full age comes to the church door to be married, after troth plighted, endows his wife of a certain portion of his lands.

— Dower ez assensu patris. only a species of dower ad ostium ecclesia, made when the husband’s father was alive, and the son, with his consent expressly given, endowed his wife, at the church door, of a certain part ef his father’s lands.