[from History of IoM, 1900, Book 7]

APPENDIX D.

The following are some further customary laws with reference to inheritance: If a woman marries a man who is seized of a freehold of inheritance, and survives him, she is entitled to one moiety of the estate, Sum sofa et casta vet. This was confirmed by an Act of Tynwald in 1687 (see Statutes, vol. i. p. 143). If a man marries an heiress, and survives, he shall be entitled to one moiety of the estate acquired by descent as long as he remains a widower, and to a moiety of the land acquired by purchase, absolutely; and he is solely entitled to the receipt of the rents and profits during the coverbure; also that an heiress so married hath no power to sell or lease her estate, without being joined in the act by her husband; and in like manner, a husband cannot seH or make a perfect lease of his estate, without the consent of his wife, so as to prejudice her right in case of survivorship. And should a man marry a second wife, having issue by the first, the second wife shall enjoy after his decease, only one fourth part of his estate of inheritance during her widowhood; but if there is no issue living by the first wife, the second shah be entitled to a moiety (Parr's MS.). (For other curious customary laws on this subject see statutes, vol. i. pp. 40, 47, 50, 63.)

We may mention, too, that, in 1777, the previous arrangements as to the mutual rights of husband and wife to landed estates not having proved satisfactory, it was decided that a wife was entitled to a moiety of her husband's purchased lands absolutely, in case she survived him, and that she might dispose of this moiety, even in his lifetime, to such of her children as she shall think proper, or to her husband. This right of dower, however, might be barred by settlement before marriage, and by joining in any sale or mortgage during marriage (Statutes, vol. i. p. 333). This was repealed in 1852, when it was enacted that a widow was to have half of her husband's net personal estate and a life estate in one moiety of his purchased lands (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 323).
* Blundell (Manx Soc., vol. xxvii. pp. 6~51).