Definition of "jointure"

Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward’s; / And now forthwith shall articles be drawn / Touching the jointure that your king must make, / Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii]

Beasts do no jointures lose / Though they new lovers choose; / But we are made worse than those.

1633, John Donne, Confined Love

You tell me you are secure of having either the Aunt or the Niece, and that you might have married the Aunt before this, whose Jointure you say is immense, but that you prefer the Niece on account of her ready Money.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book XI, page 303

The Baronet owed his son a sum of money out of the jointure of his mother, which he did not find it convenient to pay; indeed he had an almost invincible repugnance to paying anybody, and could only be brought by force to discharge his debts.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter IX, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848

Freddy had no money and no occupation. His mother’s jointure, a last relic of the opulence of Largelady Park, had enabled her to struggle along in Earlscourt with an air of gentility, but not to procure any serious secondary education for her children, much less give the boy a profession.

1912, George Bernard Shaw, “Appendix”, in Pygmalion‎

He never ſo much as ask’d me about my Fortune, or Eſtate; but aſſur'd me that vvhen vve came to Dublin he vvould Joynture me in 600l. a Year good Land; and that he vvould enter into a Deed of Settlement, or Contract here, for the Performance of it.

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, page 173