1
The term “dower,” “[a]t common law,” meant “a wife’s right, upon her husband’s death,
to a life estate in one-third of the land that he owned in fee.” Dower, Black’s Law Dictionary (10th
ed. 2014). “Curtesy” was defined at common law as “a husband’s right, upon his wife’s death, to
a life estate in the land that his wife owned during their marriage, assuming that a child was born
alive to the couple.” Curtesy, Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014).
5
was designed to ensure a wife’s “subsistence . . . during her life,” and was historically recognized
as “a favorite of the law”). In Thayer, we also recognized a husband’s right to alienate real
property during his lifetime as long as he acted in good faith. We found that this approach
prevented an “unreasonable and unnecessary clog upon the free alienation of estates” and it “[did]
not essentially impair the rights of the wife for a support during widowhood.” Id. at 119
(explaining that Vermont and other states considered “common law doctrine of dower in all the
lands of which the husband was seized during coverture . . . as an unreasonable and unnecessary
clog upon the free alienation of estates, and . . . of little practical use”). 2 If a husband conveyed
property with the intent to defeat his wife’s dower right, the conveyance “would be fraudulent and
void as against the widow, and as to her, the husband would die seized” of this property. Id. at
118.
¶ 12. A husband could also dispose of his personal property during his lifetime if done
in good faith. See Dunnett, 97 Vt. at 429, 123 A. at 631; see also O’Rourke’s Estate, 106 Vt. at
330, 175 A. at 25 (setting forth history of surviving spouse’s right to share of personal estate of