where tenant in fee-ſimple of full age, openly at the church door, where all marriages were formerly celebrated, after affiance made and (ſir Edward Coke in his tranſlation adds) troth plighted between them, doth endow his wife with the whole, or ſuch quantity as he ſhall pleaſe, of his lands; at the ſame time ſpecifying and aſcertaining the ſame: on which the wife, after her huſband's death, may enter without farther ceremony. 4. Dower ex aſſenſu patris[1]; which is only a ſpecies of dower ad oſtium eccleſiae, made when the huſband's father is alive, and the ſon by his conſent, expreſſly given, endows his wife with parcel of his father's lands. In either of theſe caſes, they muſt (to prevent frauds) be made[2] in facie eccleſiae et ad oſtium eccleſiae; non enim valent facta in lecto mortali, nec in camera, aut alibi ubi clandeſtina fuere conjugia.
It is curious to obſerve the ſeveral revolutions which the doctrine of dower has undergone, ſince it's introduction into England. It ſeems firſt to have been of the nature of the dower in gavelkind, before-mentioned; viz. a moiety of the huſband's lands, but forfeitable by incontinency or a ſecond marriage. By the famous charter of Henry I, this condition, of widowhood and chaſtity, was only required in caſe the huſband left any iſſue[3]: and afterwards we hear no more of it. Under Henry the ſecond, according to Glanvil[4], the dower ad oſtium eccleſiae was the moſt uſual ſpecies of dower; and here, as well as in Normandy[5], it was binding upon the wife, if by her conſented to at the time of marriage. Neither, in thoſe days of feodal rigour, was the huſband allowed to endow her ad oſtium eccleſiae with more than the third part of the lands whereof he then was ſeiſed, though he might endow her with leſs; left by ſuch liberal endowments the lord ſhould be defrauded of his wardſhips and other feodal profits[6]. But if no
- ↑ Ibid. §. 40.
- ↑ Bracton. l. 2. c. 39. §. 4.
- ↑ Si mortuo viro uxor ejus remanſerit, et ſine liberis fuerit, dotem ſuam habebit; — ſi vero uxor cum liberis remanſerit, dotem quidem habebit, dum corpus ſuum legitime ſervaverit. (Cart. Hen. I. A. D. 1101. Introd. to great charter, edit. Oxon. pag. iv.)
- ↑ l. 6. c. 1. & 2.
- ↑ Gr. Couſtum. c. 101.
- ↑ Bract. l. 2. c. 39. §. 6.
