Obligations upon Possessors of Property.
or it may be, affluent circumstances, deriving, we will suppose, nearly the whole of his income from freehold property. Some unforeseen accident befalls him. The ability to carry out his cherished intentions in favour of his wife is gone. They have no children, and, as a consequence, at the death of the husband the whole of the freehold property goes to his heirat-law, whoever that may be, and the widow perhaps may not even be entitled to a life-interest, or dower, as it is termed, in one-third part of the freehold.
This matter of dower will in most cases depend upon the manner in which the conveyance or title-deed to the deceased is worded. Not many years since it was an almost universal custom-and the same practice even now prevails to some extent to insert in conveyances what we conceive to be a most mischievous clause, the effect of which is to deprive the widow of even her life-interest in one-third of the husband's freeholds.
Such a clause is in the form of a declaration, and usually runs thus:-" And the said John White doth hereby declare that no woman who may become his widow shall be entitled to dower out of the premises hereby granted and conveyed." The effect of this pernicious declaration is to completely disendow the widow, and to give the preference to the deceased's heir-atlaw, who, it may sometimes happen, would be amongst the last people on earth he would desire to benefit. And the mischief of the intestacy of the husband does not end here; for, besides being deprived of the freehold, the widow has also to share even the personal property with his next of kin, in such proportions as are directed by the Statute of Distribution, the particular mode of division under which will be described in a future chapter.
There is certainly one other benefit which the wife of an intestate is entitled to, provided he die solvent, and that is, what is legally termed her "paraphernalia," which comprises her bed and necessary apparel, and also such ornaments of her person as may be consistent with the rank or position in life of her late husband, and which may be in her possession at his decease. And as to such ornaments the widow takes precedence of all legatees; but if the husband died insolvent, they are liable to the payment of his debts, and the only thing a widow can then legally claim, as against creditors, is her wearing apparel; and, to say the least, decency and humanity alike demand she should not be dispossessed of this.