Here is an article by William Dollarhide about Dowry and Dower Rights http://www.genealogybulletin.com/archives/HTML/current70.html Here's another that mentions Connecticut http://www.rootsweb.com/~flholmes/300713.doc If you search at google.com for "dower rights" +connecticut +historical or something similar, you will find that as Ralph says, as time went on each state adopted different laws, so you really need to find out what was in force in CT at the time the documents were drawn up. Lisa ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ralph Oser" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 12:22 PM Subject: RE: [GenCT] Question on Dowery Rights > Folks I think we're a little off track. I don't recall the exact distinctions any more, but think what were talking about here is dower rights (for women) not dowery. You can get a general definition of the term if you do an advanced google search with dower and Blacks Law Dictionary. My recollection is that Dower rights are the rights a married woman has in her husband's real estate acquired during their marriage which matures if he predeceases her. Men have a comparable right in his wife's property known as Curtsy. > > To determine exactly what was meant by dower rights in Connecticut at the time the issue first was known, you'd probably have to go to a law library with a good set of old state law reports, and look up cases written around that period in Connecticut. The names of the state law reporters changed over time, so your best bet would be to ask the law librarian where to look. The same would be true about what constituted "real estate" at the time. > > Because both words are easily confused with dowery and curtesy, respectively, it's understandable that both terms cause us trouble. > > It's been more than 30 years since I first learned about both set of rights in law school so please don't rely on my all to human memory. > > I can get the definitions from Blacks if you have trouble finding it for some reason, but you're on your own re. the state reporters. > > Hope this help some. > > Ralph Oser > [email protected] > > -----Original Message----- > From: "Margaret Davis" <[email protected]> > Sent: 10/16/2004 02:58 > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [GenCT] Question on Dowery Rights > > I have a similar situation in my family. In this case, the lady was the second wife of my ggrandfather. They had no children of their own but he had 4 sons by his first wife. His Will bequeathed to her (the second wife) a room in the home, bedding, wood for the winter, food etc. The eldest son was appointed executor of his father's will. Within a few days, he had her sign away her 'dower' rights, leaving with that which her husband had mentioned in the Will but none of the property although she could live there until her death, as long as she didn't remarry. Margaret in NV > > [email protected] wrote:In the early 18th century--did "Right of Dowery" refer only to property a > woman had received from her father/mother/family? > > Did it always refer to a sort of prize--or bribe--for the groom? > > I had a theory about an ancestress being sort of an 'unwed mother in the > snow', abandoned by her family, but then I found a deed in which she gave up her > Right of Dowery" to the land involved. So I assume that she was probably given > that land by her father when she married. Now I'm not sure why her maiden name > was not mentioned in the record of her marriage. > Any help would be appreciated. > EC >