454 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY.

to give for the land in 1839, which is stated to have been
about thirty thousand dollars.

My opinion, however, is, that this is not the true standard.
The land may have appreciated or depreciated in value very
much, between the purchase by Berry, and the death of the
complainant's husband; and it is the value of the land at the
time of the death, which is to be regarded, and not its value at
the time of the alienation, unless its increased value has arisen
from the labor and money of the owner.

After examining the authorities upon this question, Chan-
cellor Kent comes to the conclusion, "that the improved value
of the land, from which the widow is to be excluded in the as-
signment of her dower, as against a purchaser from her hus-
band, is, that which has arisen from the actual labor and money
of the owner, and not from that which has arisen from extrinsic
or general causes." 4 .Kent's Com., 68.

But the answer in this case takes the ground, that as Mr.
Bowie had but an equitable title to this land when he sold to
the defendant, he is entitled, upon the condition of the bond of
conveyance, to give him a clear title, to have the payments
made by him to Bowie, and which were applied by the latter to
the obtention of the legal title set off or discounted from the
complainant's claim to dower.

If Mr. Bowie, while he held but an equitable title, had sold
and transferred that title to the defendant, the claim of dower
could not be supported, it having been decided by the Court of
Appeals, that if the equitable title is parted with by the husband
in his lifetime, the widow shall not be allowed dower. Miller
vs. Stump, 3 Gill, 304.

But this was not done; on the contrary, Mr. Bowie, four
years after he contracted to sell the land to the defendant, took
the deed from his vendors to himself, because the defendant had
not then paid the purchase money, a part of which, it is under-
stood, is even yet due.

This is the case, then, of a husband dying seized of the legal
title; and, therefore, it would seem that the dower claim can-
not be defeated, either directly or indirectly, in the mode pro-