HANNAH K, CHASE'S CASE.

in relation to these attendant terms, and the distinctions between
them and legal terms in gross are entirely foreign from the present
subject of consideration.

The lease from Chase to Bryden created a legal term in gross;
and the rent reserved was an annual rent service. It is to this
particular estate which the acknowledgment of the plaintiff refers.
Suppose the late Samuel Chase had, previously to his marriage with
the plaintiff, executed such a lease as this to Bryden. How would
the plaintiffs claim of dower have been affected ? It is clear, that
a woman may be endowed of a rent service, rent charge, or rent
seek. And, to use the words of the most accurate and profound of
the English lawyers, " If the husband maketh a lease for years,
reserving rent, and taketh wife, the husband dieth, the wife shall
be endowed of the third part of the reversion by metes and bounds,
together with the third part of the rent, and execution shall not
cease during the years, "(p) But if a particular estate for yearn
be carved out of the inheritance, prior to the marriage, without the
reservation of any rent whatever, then the widow can only recover
her dower in the reversion, with a cesset executio during the term.(q)
Hence it is certain, that, if this lease to Bryden had been made
prior to the marriage, this widow would have been entitled to dower
in the reversion, and in the rent immediately from the death of her
husband.

The question then resolves itself into this: has the plaintiff's
acknowledgment placed her in the same, or in a different situa-
tion from that she would have been in, had the lease to Bryden
been made before her marriage ? At one time, an opinion pre-
vailed, that a feme covert could, in no way, bar or divest herself of
her right of dower during her coverture. But, we are told, there
can now be no question, that if the husband and wife levy a fine,
the wife is barred for two reasons. First, Because the intermarriage
and seisin are the fundamental causes of dower, and the death of
the husband but as an execution thereof. Secondlyr, Because all
those who have estate, or tide, or claim, join in the assurance |
and, therefore, in such case, if the husband and wife have made a
lease rendering rent to the husband and his heirs, and afterwards
the wife recovers dower, she shall hold it charged with the term j
since it is a maxim, that all lands in fee simple may be charged in
one way or other. But in such case, as where tjie land had been

(p) Co. Litt. 32. a.—(<?) Pow. Mort 687, note P,