Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/144

 132 him the etate conveys it alo out of him again, (as where by a fine land is granted to a man, and he immediately renders it back by the ame fine) uch a eiin will not intitle the wife to dower : for the land was merely in tranitu, and never reted in the huband. But, if the land abides in him for a ingle moment, it eems that the wife hall be endowed thereof. And, in hort, a widow may be endowed of all her huband's lands, tenements, and hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, under the retrictions before-mentioned; unles there be ome pecial reaon to the contrary. Thus, a woman hall not be endowed of a catle, built for defence of the realm : nor of a common without tint; for, as the heir would then have one portion of this common, and the widow another, and both without tint, the common would be doubly tocked. Copyhold etates alo are not liable to dower, being only etates at the lord's will; unles by the pecial cutom of the manor, in which cae it is uually called the widow's free-bench. But, where dower is allowable, it matters not, though the huband aliene the lands during the coverture; for he alienes them liable to dower.

3., as to the manner in which a woman is to be endowed. There are now ubiting four pecies of dower; the fifth, mentioned by Littleton, de la plus belle, having been abolihed together with the military tenures, of which it was a conequence. 1. Dower by the common law; or that which is before decribed. 2. Dower by particular cutom ; as that the wife hall have half the huband's lands, or in ome places the whole, and in ome only a quarter. 3. Dower ad otium eccleiae : which is Rh