Dower by custom
Defined in 3 dictionaries — Black's (1910), Black's (1891), Burrill (1850)
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
A kind of dower in England, regulated by custom, where the quantity allowed the wife differed from the proportion of the common law; as that the wife should have half the husband's lands; or, in some places, the whole; and, in some, only a quarter. 2 Bl. Comm. 132; Litt. § 37.
Defined under Dower in Black's Law Dictionary.
A Dictionary of Law
Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A kind of dower in England, regulated by custom, where the quantity allowed the wife differed from the proportion of the common law; aa some, only a quarter. 2 Bl. Comm. 1382; Litt. § 37.
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A kind of dower in England, regulated by custom, where the quantity allowed the wife differed from the proportion of the common law; as that the wife should have half the husband's lands, or, in some places, the whole; and in some, only a quarter. 2 BL Com. 132. LitL sect. 37. DOWER AD OSTIUM ECCLESIiE. L. Lat. 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. sect. 39. 2 BL Cam, 133. According to Bracton the endowment was made before the espousal, at the commencement of the contract, {ante desponsationem, in initio contract^.) Bract, fol. 92. This appears to have been the original English dower, and is supposed by some to have been derived from the donatio propter nuptias of the civil law. See Dower. It was formerly the most usual species of dower, and though latterly fallen into disuse was not abolished until the recent statute of 3 <k 4 Will. IV. c. 106, s. 13. 2 Bl. Com. 133—135. 1 Steph. Com. 262, 253. The wife might be endowed of personalty or ^oods as well as of lands, and a trace of this ancient kind of dower is still distinctly preserved in the marriage ritual of the church of England, in the expression "with all my worldly goods I thee endow." See 2 Bl. Com. 134, note {p).