Disarmament is the dower that is born from the soil of security, and if there is insecurity, disarmament dies, and there is no way at all of keeping it alive.
There is the possibility that unwittingly a dower house sett which is occupied may be stopped up.
In those countries silver is largely held as the woman's dower and is not readily available in the form of purchasing power.
The latter entries probably reflect the preference of buyers and lenders to see the wife identified in the transaction to prevent some future contest on the basis of dower rights.
The apparent importance of dower rights directs attention at instruments in which a woman is one of the signatories as opposed to being the only signatory.
If, however, the husband had borrowed money to provide his wife with a dower she could be liable for the payment of these debts.
In the seventeenth century the size of the dower on an ordinary farm was not considerable.
There was no clear right of widow's dower.
