Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/150

 138 four requiites mut be punctually oberved. 1. The jointure mut take effect immediately on the death of the huband. 2. It mut be for her own life at leat, and not pur auter vie, or for any term of years, or other maller etate. 3. It mut be made to herelf, and no other in trut for her. 4. It mut be made, and o in the deed particularly expreed to be, in atisfaction of her whole dower, and not of any particular part of it. If the jointure be made to her after marriage, he has her election after her huband's death, as in dower ad otium eccleiae, and may either accept it, or refue it and betake herelf to her dower at common law; for he was not capable of conenting to it during coverture. And if, by any fraud or accident, a jointure made before marriage proves to be on a bad title, and the jointres is evicted, or turned out of poeion, he hall then (by the proviions of the ame tatute) have her dower pro tanto at the common law.

are ome advantages attending tenants in dower that do not extend to jointrees; and o, vice vera, jointrees are in ome repects more privileged than tenants in dower. Tenant in dower by the old common law is ubject to no tolls or taxes; and hers is almot the only etate on which, when derived from the king's debtor, the king cannot ditrain for his debt; if contracted during the converture. But, on the other hand, a widow may enter at once, without any formal proces, on her jointure land; as he alo might have done on dower ad otium eccleiae, which a Rh