DOVE. The name of a well known bird.
2. Doves are animals ferae naturae, and not the subject of larceny1, unless they are in the owner's custody2; as, for example, in a dove-house, or when in the nest before they can fly. 9 Pick. 15. See Whelp.
DOWAGER. A widow endowed; one who has a jointure.
2. In England, this is a title or addition given to the widows of princes, dukes, earls, and other noblemen.
DOWER. An estate for life, which the law gives the widow in the third part of the lands and tenements3, or hereditaments of which the hushand, was solely4 seised, at any time during the coverture, of an estate in fee or in tail, in possession, and to which estate in the lands and tenements, the issue, if any, of such widow might, by possibility, have inherited. Watk. Prin. Con5. 38; Litt. 36; 7 Greenl. 383. Vide Estate in Dower. This is dower at common law.
2. Besides this, in England there are three other species of dower now subsisting6; namely, dower by custom, which is, where a widow becomes entitled to a certain portion of her hushand's lands in consequence of some local or particular custom, thus by the custom of gavelkind, the widow is entitled to a moiety7 of all the lands and tenements, which her hushand held by that tenure8.
3. Dower ad ostium ecclesiae, is, when a man comes to the church door to be married, after troth plighted9, endows his wife of a certain portion of his lands.
4. Dower ex assensu patris, was only a species of dower ad ostium ecclesice, made when the hushand's father was alive, and the son, with his consent expressly given, endowed his wife, at the church door, of a certain part of his father's lands.
5. There was another kind, de la plus belle10, to which the abolition11 of military tenures has put an end. Vide Cruise's Dig. t. 6, c. 1; 2 Bl. Com. 129; 15 Serg. Rawle, 72 Poth. Du Douaire.
6. Dower is barred in various ways; 1. By the adultery of the wife, unless it has been condoned12. 2. By a jointure settled upon the wife. 2 Paige, R. 511. 3. By the wife joining her hushand in a conveyance13 of the estate. 4. By the hushand and wife levying14 a fine, or suffering a common recovery. 10 Co. 49, b Plowd. 504. 5. By a porce a vinculo matrimonii. 6. By an acceptance, by the wife, of a collateral15 satisfaction, consisting of land, money, or other chattel16 interest, given instead of it by the hushand's will, and accepted after the hushand's death. In these cases she has a right to elect whether to take her dower or the bequest17 or devise. 4 Monr. R. 265; 5 Monr. R. 58; 4 Desaus. R. 146; 2 M'Cord, Ch. R. 280; 7 Cranch, R. 370; 5 Call, R. 481; 1 Edw. R. 435 3 Russ. R. 192; 2 Dana, R. 342.
7. In some of the United States, the estate which the wife takes in the lands of her deceased hushand, varies essentially18 from the right of dower at common law. In some of the states, she takes one-third of the profits, or in case of there being no children, one half. In others she takes the same right in fee, when there are no lineal descendants; and in one she takes two-thirds in fee, when there are no lineal ascendauts or descendants, or brother or sister of the whole or half blood. 1 Hill. Ab. 57, 8; see Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.
