Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 400

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Volume 3, Page 400

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[001] as in the county of Kent, [where] if she remarries after her dower has been assigned,
[002] or before the assignment, she immediately loses the gavelkind land she holds in the
[003] name of dower. On this matter may be found [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in the
[004] second year of king Henry after the war, in the county of Kent.¹ The same custom
[005] is observed in the city of London, with respect to lands and tenements in that city,
[006] and elsewhere in many other places.² Whether she has had seisin or not, if after the
[007] death of her husband she is found to be with child by someone other than her
[008] husband, whether she is married or is not, [that is,] if a husband is found, or a child
[009] or both, she will lose her dower. She will also lose her dower by felony and the like.
[010] She loses her dower before it is assigned, by the act and felony of her husband, as
[011] above,³ for if she claims, the exception that⁴ she is without a warrantor will bar her.
[012] She loses her dower after it has been assigned, as where the heir is impleaded by one
[013] who has the right as to the two parts [and loses],⁵ [or if] the woman vouches the heir
[014] to warranty, and when he has warranted he loses the whole, the woman thereby
[015] loses dower, nor will she have escambium, because since it is proved that the heir,
[016] the warrantor of her dower, had no right in the two parts, she consequently has none
[017] in the third. She may also lose dower through negligence and silence, as where,
[018] when she has been wrongfully disseised, she remains silent for a time that exceeds
[019] the period of limitation for novel disseisin, or when she has been wrongfully disseised
[020] she is silent for a long time, afterwards usurps her seisin without judgment,
[021] and the disseisor regains his seisin; she will never be restored to seisin, but afterwards
[022] she may sue on the property by writ of right, which is provided for dower on her own
[023] seisin.

[Of the writ of] right of dower for claiming land which belongs to the dower when the writ of dower has failed.

[025] If there is some part of her dower which she has not acquired by the writ of dower,
[026] she is aided by a writ called the writ of right of dower, which ought to be a writ
[027] close and directed to the woman's warrantor of her dower in the form described
[028] above, among the writs of right.⁶ It is of importance whether she has once been in
[029] seisin and been disseised, as was said a little above, or was never in seisin. This plea
[030] ought to be brought in the court of the warrantor until it is proved to have failed
[031] to do right, and that proved, the plea is removed to the county court, as in other
[032] pleas of right, and thence to the great court for the several reasons already noted.⁷
[033] As to

Notes

1. B.N.B., nos. 9, 1338; supra 389

2. Supra ii, 267

3. Supra 395

4. ‘quod’

5. Om: ‘et mulier de tertia’

6. Infra iv, 50; Glanvill, vi, 5

7. Supra ii, 300; Glanvill, vi, 6