4 June 2014
Who knew there could be so many different kinds of endowment involving women? Do you know the differences in these when you encounter them in old records?
Dowry: The money, goods, or property that a woman "brought to her husband" at the time of marriage. He, thereafter, controlled the property until and unless he predeceased her.
Dower: A widow's legal share of the real estate ("lands or tenements") left by her husband, intended for her support or for nurturing their children. Under English and American common-law, custom set the dower interest at one-third.
Dower by Father's Assent: Also called dower ex assensu patris. This species of dower happened when the husband-to-be promised his bride a share of the estate he expected to inherit from his father. Naturally, that was legal only if the father consented.
Dower at the Church Door: Aka dower as ostium ecclesliæ. An ancient English custom by which a groom who owned property in fee simple would bestow all or part of it on his bride "at the door of the church."
So, let's pose another question: Why in the world would the "church door" be involved?
Source: Henry Campbell Black, Black's Law Dictionary: Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1951), 580–81.