Assignment Of Dower

[L. Lat. assignatio dotis.] The marking out and laying off of one third part of a man's lands as the dower of his widow; designating it by metes and bounds, or other sufficient description, and allotting it to her as her portion. This assignment may be made in pais, by parol, by the heir or devisee, or other persons seised of the lands subject to dower; or it may be made by a course of judicial proceeding, where a voluntary assignment is refused. But the estate does not pass by the assignment, the dowress being in in intendment of law, of the seisin of her husband; and this is the reason that neither livery nor writing is essential to the validity of an assignment in pais.

4 Kent's Com. 63, 69.