From: Gordie Fears 
    ....

    Hi,
     
    I understand the basic concept of dower rights.  I also understand that a wife relinquishes her dower rights when property is sold.  I also realize that sometimes a wife is examined with privity to be sure husband is not threatening her to agree to land sale.  I presume this relinquishment is required to pass good title to grantee.

    All you have said is correct.
     
    I am not familiar with complex colonial property law issues and was wondering if a husband does sell property without wife's consent, what are the wife's remedies to the transaction?  Where would these remedies be recorded?

    *****Her remedies were in equity, usually inadequate and were most difficult to gain, since virtually no court readily would rescind a sale, the sanctity of land title having been paramount in the views of English speaking peoples.

    ****There were exceptions where the buyer was complicit in a subterfuge or guilty of deceit and was aware at the time of purchase that the wife objected to the bargain.  If a buyer did not know of that objection or could not reasonably learn that the seller was married, most courts took the view that he was without fault to a greater degree than was the husband, and the title stood.  

    *****In the very few cases known to me, the husband was required to set aside sums of money or otherwise compensate the wife for her loss.  If the husband had died, and only after that death the fact of sale without consent was learned, the courts seem to have been quick to favor the wife and grant to her compensation equal to what it would have been had her husband died owning the land.  You other lawyers out there; what say you?   Paul      
     
    ....John Brown sold land along Briery Creek and no wife relinquishes her dower rights.  John Brown married Elizabeth Atkins in 1756 ....  Robert Atkins left a will recorded in Prince Edward County....  His will written around 1777 mentions daughter Elizabeth Brown.  James Fears wrote his will in 1797 and mentions daughter Elizabeth Brown.  See Will Book 3 page 356.  Thus, I want to conclude Elizabeth Brown is Elizabeth Fears Brown rather than Elizabeth Atkins Brown.

    *****I do not believe that you may infer either conclusion without thoroughly searching the courts' orders and minutes subsequent to the deed date and continuing through some years subsequent to the date of death in order to see if the court found and resolved such a question. 

      Paul     
     

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