Definition
A historical common law writ available to a widow against the executor of her deceased husband's estate. The writ compelled the executor to set aside and deliver to the widow her reasonable part — typically one-third — of the deceased husband's personal property, calculated after the payment of the decedent's debts. It was a procedural remedy to enforce what was understood as the widow's customary entitlement to a share of matrimonial personal estate upon her husband's death.
Why It Matters in Research
This writ belongs to a cluster of medieval and early modern remedies designed to protect the widow's portion — the share of a husband's personalty that custom reserved for the surviving spouse. Researchers working in probate, ecclesiastical court records, or early common law pleading will encounter this writ in contexts where the widow's distributive share was contested or withheld by an executor.
The writ is closely tied to the broader doctrine of reasonable parts (rationabilis pars), which recognized customary shares for widow and children in certain jurisdictions, particularly in the ecclesiastical law tradition. Researchers should be aware that this doctrine did not apply uniformly across England: in areas governed by the custom of London and the custom of York, reasonable parts survived into the early modern period, while in areas under the common law of England proper, testamentary freedom over personalty was increasingly recognized, making the widow's customary share legally precarious. The writ de rationabili parte bonorum was therefore more practically available — and more frequently litigated — in jurisdictions where custom preserved the widow's portion than in areas where it had fallen away.
The writ's availability declined as ecclesiastical courts asserted jurisdiction over probate and distribution of personal estate, and as statutes — culminating in the Statute of Distributions (1670) and subsequent legislation — replaced customary shares with fixed statutory entitlements. By the time American colonial legal systems were established, this writ had largely become a historical curiosity, absorbed into statutory frameworks governing intestate distribution and spousal rights. American researchers will rarely encounter this writ in domestic sources, but may find it referenced in early colonial pleading manuals or treatises drawing on English common law antecedents.
Cross-reference to Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium is the primary historical authority for the writ's form and operation. Any research into the writ's pleading requirements or the executor's defenses should begin there.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines the writ as lying "for a widow against the executor of her deceased husband, to compel the executor to set off to her a third part of the decedent's personalty, after payment of his debts," citing Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium 122. The entry is brief and does not address the writ's jurisdictional limitations, its relationship to ecclesiastical jurisdiction over probate, or its obsolescence by the time of the dictionary's publication. The one-third share stated in Black's reflects the customary rule where a child or children also survived — if there were no children, the widow's customary share was typically one-half. Black's does not capture this variation.
Historical legal dictionaries generally treat this writ with minimal elaboration, consistent with its status as an obsolete remedy by the nineteenth century. Researchers should not rely on dictionary entries alone for the substantive doctrine underlying the writ; Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium and secondary treatments of ecclesiastical probate law provide the necessary depth.
Jurisdictional Note
The writ was an English common law remedy with no direct American successor. In the United States, spousal rights in personal estate are governed by statute — elective share provisions, community property regimes, and intestacy statutes — none of which descend procedurally from this writ. English researchers working in pre-1700 records will find the writ most relevant in northern and London ecclesiastical court contexts where the custom of reasonable parts persisted.