jus relictae

‘the right of the relict’ (the widow).  It is the share of the moveable goods of a marriage to which a widow was entitled on the death of her husband. If there were no surviving children the jus relictae was one-half of the husband’s moveable goods. If there were children, one-third would go to them as the bairns’ pairt or legitim, one-third was the jus relictae and the remaining one-third would be the dead’s part which the deceased could bequeath. Widowers were given the same rights, jus relicti, in 1881. See also terce for the widow’s rights in heritables.