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[001] they were present at the marriage and that she was endowed as she says, the woman
[002] demandant will recover, as may be found in the eyre of Martin of Pateshull in the
[003] county of Suffolk, in the twelfth1 year of king Henry, [the case] of the countess of
[004] Oxford and William Blund and Cecilia his wife, where suit was produced on both
[005] sides.2 If neither party has suit or proof, not even a presumption or an instrument,
[006] and both put themselves on the country as to the truth, in the absence of suit or
[007] other proof let an inquest as to the truth then be taken by the following writ.

That there shall be an inquiry by the country where suit and other proof is lacking.


[009] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. We order you to inquire diligently into who were
[010] present at such a church when A. married B. his wife, and to cause to come before
[011] our justices etc. on such a day twelve free and lawful men, from among those as
[012] well as from others of the immediate vicinage of such a vill, by whom etc., to recognize
[013] on their oath whether the aforesaid A. on the day he married B. endowed her
[014] specifically of such a manor with the appurtenances, which the aforesaid B. claims
[015] as her dower in our court against C., as the aforesaid B. says, or whether he endowed
[016] her of a third part of all the lands and tenements of which he was in seisin on the day
[017] he married the said B., as the same C. says, because both the aforesaid B. and C.
[018] have put themselves etc. (as above).’ The writ and the inquest may be varied in
[019] many ways according to the variety of the records, thus: ‘If the aforesaid A. on the
[020] day he married the same B. endowed her of twenty acres of land with the appurtenances
[021] in N. etc. (as above) or of the third part of so much land with the appurtenances
[022] in N.,’ or ‘if he endowed her of a third part of the entire inheritance which
[023] he then held hereditarily and in demesne, and likewise of a third part of all the acquests
[024] which he might afterwards acquire during his lifetime,3 or of so much land
[025] only (or ‘only of the inheritance he held on the day he married the aforesaid B.’)
[026] as the same C. says, with which the aforesaid B. held herself content at the church
[027] door when she was married, since both the aforesaid B. and C. have put themselves
[028] on that inquest. And cause that inquest to come etc. Witness etc.’ Every variety of
[029] constitution of dower against which an exception can in any way be raised may be
[030] brought within this inquest. Sometimes proof of the constitution of dower and the
[031] manner of constituting it may be made by instruments, whose authenticity, if they
[032] are not acknowledged,



Notes

1. ‘duodecimo’

2. B.N.B., no. 1919; also infra iv, 336

3. ‘eo vivente’


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