DOWRES

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DOWRESS. A woman entitled to dower.
       2. In order to entitle a woman to the rights of a dowress at common 
  law, she must have been lawfully married, her husband must be dead, he must 
  have been seised, during the coverture, of an estate subject to dower. 
  Although the marriage may be void able, if it is not absolutely void at his 
  death, it is sufficient to support the rights of the dowress. The husband 


  and wife must have been of sufficient age to consent. 
       3. At common law an alien could not be endowed, but this rule has been 
  changed in several states. 2 John. Cas. 29; 1 Harr. & Gill, 280.; 1 Cowen, 
  R. 89; 8 Cowen, R. 713. 
       4. The dowress' right may be defeated when her husband was not of right 
  seised of an estate of inheritance; as, for example, dower will be defeated 
  upon the restoration of the seisin under the prior title in the case of 
  defeasible estates, as in case of reentry for a condition broken, which 
  abolishes the intermediate seisin. Perk. s. 311, 312, 317.