Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 270

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Volume 2, Page 270

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[001] castle in Ireland, where the countess was endowed without any exception of the
[002] entire manor that was the head of a barony.] ¹[If it suffices for dower, for the third
[003] part of her husband's entire inheritance, she ought to hold herself satisfied;² ³if
[004] there is less there than may suffice and at its constitution she held⁴ herself content,
[005] she may claim nothing more at the assignment. If more, the excess is taken by admeasurement.
[006] Both limitations may be introduced as conditions,⁵ ⁶for a woman may
[007] be specifically endowed subject to a condition or without one: without, as where a
[008] husband says to his wife that he endows her of such a manor with the appurtenances;⁷
[009] [subject to a condition], ⁸as where he endows her of some entire manor and says,
[010] ‘if it suffices for dower let it remain to her entire and without dispute. If there is less
[011] there, let the deficiency be made up to her in some certain and suitable place; if more,
[012] then, after an extent and rightful valuation, let that surplus be restored to the heir.’⁹
[013] And in truth, no matter how the constitution of dower is made,¹⁰ the modus of the
[014] constitution must always be observed and followed, provided the constitution was
[015] lawful and not contrary to the lex terrae.] [When a wife has thus been specifically
[016] endowed of some certain property, she begins at once, at the time the dower is
[017] constituted, to have a right in that property,¹¹ ¹²[and in all the appurtenances, in
[018] the advowsons and collations of churches, in wardships,¹³ reliefs and marriages, and
[019] in all other things, since nothing is specifically excepted. Exceptions are sometimes
[020] made, in many ways, as will be explained below.]¹⁴ so that if the husband transfers
[021] it to another while their marriage subsists, no matter by what causa, she will have a
[022] repetitio against the tenant, whoever he is, after her husband's death.¹⁵ When she
[023] claims [it] by action of dower and the tenant vouches the heir to warranty and he
[024] warrants him, the wife will recover the specific property (which ought not to be if
[025] she is endowed without specification, of the third part of the property acquired and
[026] to be acquired) and the tenant escambium to the value from his warrantor.¹⁶ It is
[027] otherwise if the property has been aliened by the husband during marriage and she
[028] claims the third part against the tenant; he will retain what he holds when the heir
[029] has warranted him and she will recover to the value from the heir,¹⁷ if he has the
[030] wherewithal. If he does not, she will recover what she claims¹⁸ and as to escambium
[031] from the heir let the tenant await better times, until some part of the inheritance has
[032] come to the heir; after it has, let the wife then have escambium from the inheritance
[033] and the tenant again have his tenement; if nothing falls to the heir during the life
[034] of the wife let the land remain to her for life in the name

Notes

1-2. ‘Si sufficiat ... contentam,’ from lines 4-5

3-5. ‘si autem ibi ... condicionem,’ from lines 9-12

4. ‘tenuit’

6-7. ‘Poterit enim ... cum pertinentiis,’ from lines 2-4

8. ‘ut si quis ...’, line 12; Cal. Cl. Rolls, 1234-37, 205

9. Infra iii, 369

10. ‘facta,’ as V; no MS authority

11. Infra iii, 368, 392

12-14. ‘et [in] omnes ... dicetur,’ from lines 5-9

13. ‘custodiis,’ all MSS

15. Infra 275

16. Infra iii, 365, 368

17. Infra iii, 365

18. B.N.B., no. 571