jewels to ranſom him when taken priſoner by the Vandals[1]. However this be, the reaſon, which our law gives for adopting it, is a very plain and a ſenſible one; for the ſuſtenance of the wife, and the nurture and education of the younger children[2].
In treating of this eſtate, let us, firſt, conſider, who may be endowed; ſecondly, of what ſhe may be endowed; thirdly, the manner how ſhe ſhall be endowed; and, fourthly, how dower may be barred or prevented.
1. Who may be endowed. She muſt be the actual wife of the party at the time of his deceaſe. If ſhe be divorced a vinculo matrimonii, ſhe ſhall not be endowed; for ubi nullum matrimonium, ibi nulla dos[3]. But a divorce a menſa et thoro only doth not deſtroy the dower[4]; no, not even for adultery itſelf, by the common law[5]. Yet now by the ſtatute Weſtm. 2.[6] if a woman elopes from her huſband, and lives with an adulterer, ſhe ſhall loſe her dower, unleſs her huſband be voluntarily reconciled to her. It was formerly held, that the wife of an idiot might be endowed, though the huſband of an idiot could not be tenant by the curteſy[7]: but as it ſeems to be at preſent agreed, upon principles of found ſenſe and reaſon, that an idiot cannot marry, being incapable of conſenting to any contract, this doctrine cannot now take place. By the antient law the wife of a perſon attainted of treaſon or felony could not be endowed; to the intent, ſays Staunforde[8], that, if the love of a man's own life cannot reſtrain him from ſuch atrocious acts, the love of his wife and children may: though Britton[9] gives it another turn; viz. that it is preſumed the wife was privy to her huſband's crime. However, the ſtatute 1 Edw. VI. c. 12. abated the rigor of the common law in
- ↑ Mod. Un. Hiſt. xxxii. 91.
- ↑ Bract. l. 2. c. 39. Co. Litt. 30.
- ↑ Bract. l. 2. c. 39. §. 4.
- ↑ Co. Litt. 32.
- ↑ Yet, among the antient Goths, an adultereſs was puniſhed by the loſs of her dotalitii et trientis ex bonis mobilibus viri. (Stiernh. l. 3. c. 2.)
- ↑ 13 Edw. I. c. 34.
- ↑ Co. Litt. 31.
- ↑ P. C. b. 3. c. 3.
- ↑ c. 110.
