Dower is the provision which the law makes for a widow out of the lands or tenements of her husband for her support and the nurture of her children. In England the dower was known before the Norman conquest, and it was reorganized in the Magna Charta of King John in 1215. Dower was the life estate to which every married woman was entitled if her husband died intestate, or in case she dissented from his will. The widow's dower was usually preserved for her and took precedence over any devise of realty in her husband's will, unless she elected to accept the provisions of the will in lieu of dower, or unless she had already forfeited dower claims by an antenuptial agreement. Dower has been abolished in the majority of the states and materially altered in most of the others.
Old terminology can trip up the incautious genealogist.