Definition
In English law, DOW (also spelled dowe) is an archaic term for a widow who is endowed — that is, a widow who either receives dower from her deceased husband's estate or who holds property of her own that was settled on her at or following marriage. The term describes the person entitled to dower rights, not the rights themselves.
The distinction is important: dow identifies the widow as a legal status holder, while dower identifies the interest or right she holds in her late husband's land.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Dow in modern ordinary use refers primarily to a male given name, a transferred surname, or an informal shortening of the Dow Jones financial average. No legal meaning survives in common English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not record a legal meaning at all, directing readers instead to dhow — a type of sailing vessel. The legal term had already receded from common recognition by that date.
Editorial note: The complete absence of the legal meaning from Webster's 1913 is itself informative. By the late nineteenth century, dow as a standalone legal term had effectively dropped out of active use, surviving only in historical records and older legal dictionaries. A researcher encountering the word in a modern context should not assume any legal significance; a researcher encountering it in pre-nineteenth century English legal records should immediately read it as referring to a widow with dower entitlement.
Common Confusion
DOW is easily conflated with DOWER. The terms are closely related but grammatically and legally distinct: dower is the right or interest in land; dow is the widow who holds or is entitled to that right. Historical sources sometimes use the terms loosely or interchangeably, which can create ambiguity in older pleadings and conveyancing instruments. Additionally, dow should not be confused with DOT or DOTAGE in the civil law tradition — though Burrill's entry appears in proximity to the Latin dotare (to endow) and Roman dotal concepts, the English term dow operates within the common law dower framework, not the Roman dowry system.
Why It Matters in Research
This term matters almost exclusively in historical research involving English property law, conveyancing records, and probate materials predating the mid-nineteenth century. Several research traps are worth noting.
First, the term is nearly invisible in modern legal texts. If you encounter dow in a contemporary source, it is almost certainly a typographical variant, a surname, or an unrelated usage. The legal meaning is confined to historical materials.
Second, because Burrill's places the entry in close proximity to Roman dotal law concepts (dotale prædium, dotare), a researcher skimming the page could mistakenly import civil law meaning into what is a common law term. English dow has nothing to do with the Roman dowry system; it describes dower rights, which are a distinct common law institution tied to a widow's claim on her husband's real property.
Third, the term appears in older English deeds, jointure settlements, and estate records where its precise meaning — widow entitled to dower versus widow holding a jointure — may carry practical legal consequences for interpreting the document. Burrill's Brande citation distinguishes between a widow enjoying dower from her husband and one holding her own property settled on herself, a distinction relevant to questions of alienability, creditor claims, and the scope of the widow's interest.
Fourth, jurisdictions that received English common law (including early American states) may have records using this term, though it is uncommon in American legal materials even in the colonial period.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical dictionary source for this term, and it offers two distinct glosses. The first, attributed to Cowell, treats dow as a verb — "to give, or endow" — derived from the Latin dotare. The second, attributed to Blount and Brande, treats dow as a noun identifying a widow endowed or holding a jointure. These two uses reflect different layers of the term's history: the verbal form is older and more directly tied to Latin roots, while the noun form is the more practically significant English legal usage.
No other major historical law dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus give this term independent treatment, which is consistent with its status as a peripheral and archaic term even by the time of the major nineteenth-century dictionary compilations. The absence from Webster's 1913 confirms that the term had lost its foothold in common legal vocabulary well before the twentieth century.
Jurisdictional Note
Dow as a legal term is essentially an English common law artifact. American jurisdictions largely adopted dower as the operative term; dow does not appear with any regularity in American statutory or case law. Researchers working in Scottish or continental European legal history should be especially careful not to conflate dow with the civil law dot or dos.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Dower; Jointure; Widow's Rights in Property