thereof to the lord, and the widow is immediate tenant to the heir, by a kind of ſubinfeudation or under-tenancy, completed by this inveſtiture or aſſignment: which tenure may ſtill be created, notwithſtanding the ſtatute of quia emptores, becauſe the heir parts not with the fee-ſimple, but only with an eſtate for life. If the heir or his guardian do not aſſign her dower within the term of quarentine, or do aſſign it unfairly, ſhe has her remedy at law, and the ſheriff is appointed to aſſign it[1]. If the thing of which ſhe is endowed be diviſible, her dower muſt be ſet out by metes and bounds; but, if it be indiviſible, ſhe muſt be endowed ſpecially; as, of the third preſentation to a church, the third toll-diſh of a mill, the third part of the profits of an office, the third ſheaf of tithe, and the like[2].
Upon preconcerted marriages, and in eſtates of conſiderable conſequence, tenancy in dower happens very ſeldom: for, the claim of the wife to her dower at the common law diffuſing itſelf ſo extenſively, it became a great clog to alienations, and was otherwiſe inconvenient to families. Wherefore, ſince the alteration of the antient law reſpecting dower ad oſtium eccleſiae, which hath occaſioned the intire diſuſe of that ſpecies of dower, jointures have been introduced in their ſtead, as a bar to the claim at common law. Which leads me to enquire, laſtly.
4. How dower may be barred or prevented. A widow may be barred of her dower not only by elopement, divorce, being an alien, the treaſon of her huſband, and other diſabilities before-mentioned, but alſo by detaining the title deeds, or evidences of the eſtate from the heir; until ſhe reſtores them[3]: and, by the ſtatute of Gloceſter[4], if a dowager alienes the land aſſigned her for dower, ſhe forfeits it ipſo facto, and the heir may recover it by action. A woman alſo may be barred of her dower, by levying a fine or ſuffering a recovery of the lands, during her cover-
