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[001] In the second it is not absolute but in suspense until the condition occurs or fails
[002] to do so. Rightful1 dower may be constituted, as was said above, not dower in
[003] excess of a third part, because [It cannot be constituted in a larger amount than
[004] a third but it may be in a smaller, provided the wife declares herself satisfied when
[005] it is so constituted.]2 if more than rightful3 dower is constituted, when it has been
[006] assigned the excess will be revoked by admeasurement,4 [that is], if the chief lord
[007] or someone other than the heir has made the assignment; if the heir has made it,
[008] knowingly and advisedly, it will be otherwise.5 And that dower is limited to a third
[009] part is true unless6 the land is held in socage, where the constitution of dower
[010] is made in a different way, [unless another practice is followed by force of some
[011] special custom, as where socage is joined with a military fee, [as in the roll] of
[012] Easter term in the fifteenth year of king Henry in the county of Cambridge,]7
[013] or in gavelkind.8 Dower may be constituted not only in lands and tenements
[014] acquired but in those to be acquired, if they are acquired or fall in during the
[015] life of the husband, as [in the roll] of Easter term in the seventh year of king Henry
[016] in the county of Somerset, [the case] of Emma, wife of William Dacy,9 for though
[017] a husband has right in the lands to be acquired, unless they are acquired in his
[018] lifetime an action of dower fails, even though they fall in or are acquired after his
[019] death, for dower may not be claimed of that of which the husband never had seisin,
[020] unless it was constituted in a tenement which was to revert to the husband after
[021] the tenant's death [in this way], ‘whether it reverts during his lifetime or after his
[022] death;’ if so constituted10 an action of dower will lie, as may be seen: if dower is
[023] constituted in a tenement another wife holds in dower ‘if it falls in during the life
[024] of the endowed wife;’ though it does not accrue in her husband's lifetime the wife
[025] (if she has sufficient suit) will recover it as her dower,11 [because it was specifically
[026] constituted, though it would be otherwise if it were not specified,] as [in the roll] of
[027] Hilary term in the fourteenth year of king Henry in the county of Northampton,
[028] [the case] of Cristiana wife of Walter,12 who recovered though her husband had
[029] never had seisin during his life. When a wife has been so endowed of land another
[030] holds, which after the tenant's death ought to revert to the heir, the warrantor of
[031] her dower, must she await the death of the tenant before she may have her dower
[032] or ought she to be assigned something to the value in tenancy until the dower so
[033] specified has been delivered to her? It seems that she ought to wait, unless it is
[034] otherwise expressly agreed when the dower is first



Notes

1. ‘rationabilis’

2. Infra 270, 271

3. ‘rationabilis’

4. Glanvill, vi, 1; infra 270

5. Infra iii, 404; B.N.B., no. 150

6. Om: ‘de feodo militari’; infra iii, 390

7. C.R.R., xiv, nos. 1418 (Easter), 1948 (Trin.); B.N.B., no. 623 (Trin.)

8. Reading: ‘nisi terra teneatur in socagio ... dotis constitutio, nisi aliter observatur ... speciali, ut si socagium adiungatur ... comitatu Cantebrigiae, vel in gavelkinde.’

9. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant

10. Reading: ‘ad virum reversurum sive revertatur in vita viri sive post mortem; si dos ita constituta fuerit erit locus ...’

11. Infra 274-5, iii, 392

12. B.N.B., no. 377; C.R.R., xiii, no. 2313


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