Definition
A cousin in the fourth degree of kinship — that is, a person related through a common ancestor four generational steps removed. The term is an anglicization of the Latin "quater," meaning four, combined with cousin, producing a designation for the outermost reach of recognizable cousinship under traditional common law kinship reckoning.
In practice, the term carried less operative legal weight than it did rhetorical weight. By the time it appeared regularly in legal writing, "quater cousin" had become a byword for remote, nearly nominal relationship — the kind of connection acknowledged in name but not in substance.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Quater cousin" does not appear as a standard modern English entry. The related form "cater-cousin" appears in older English to describe a close companion or intimate friend — somewhat paradoxically, given its etymological root in "fourth."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's records "cater-cousin" as meaning an intimate friend or companion, noting the term's use by Shakespeare to suggest a person held in close regard.
The gap between common and legal usage is sharp and worth flagging. In ordinary historical English, "cater-cousin" drifted toward meaning someone close and familiar. In legal usage, "quater cousin" meant the opposite: a relative so distant as to be nearly a stranger. Blackstone himself invoked the term as proverbial shorthand for the farthest, most trivial degree of intimacy. A researcher encountering either spelling in a historical document must determine from context whether the author means a close familiar companion (literary usage) or a remote fourth-degree kinsman (legal usage).
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Common Confusion
Two overlapping confusions arise with this term. First, the spelling variants — "quater cousin," "cater cousin," and "cater-cousin" — appear interchangeably in historical sources, sometimes obscuring whether a legal or literary meaning is intended. Second, modern readers may conflate "fourth cousin" as understood today (descendants sharing great-great-grandparents) with the historical degrees-of-kinship computation, which counted differently depending on whether civil law or canon law reckoning was applied. Under canon law computation, degrees were counted differently than under civil law, meaning a "fourth degree" cousin was not always the same relationship across legal traditions.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively a term of historical art. Researchers are unlikely to encounter "quater cousin" in modern statutes, regulations, or case law. Its significance lies in three areas:
First, in reading historical English legal texts — particularly those in the Blackstone tradition — the term appears as proverbial shorthand. When an 18th- or 19th-century author invokes "quater cousins," they are typically making a rhetorical point about remoteness of relationship or tenuous social connection, not asserting a specific legal claim based on kinship.
Second, in intestacy and inheritance disputes in historical sources, degree-of-kinship calculations mattered acutely for determining heirs. A researcher working through probate records, chancery proceedings, or inheritance disputes in sources predating modern statutory tables of consanguinity should be alert to whether the document uses civil law or canon law degree-counting. The difference can shift who qualifies as an heir.
Third, the term illustrates a broader research trap in historical family law: terms that appear precise (a specific numerical degree) were often used loosely, and terms that appear affectionate or close ("cater-cousin" in literary use) could mean the opposite in legal context.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries reflect the term's peripheral status. Black's Law Dictionary provides the most substantive entry, defining the term as "a cousin in the fourth degree" and quoting Blackstone's Law Tracts for the proverbial usage: "The very name of 'cater' or (as it is more properly wrote) 'quater' cousins is grown into a proverb, to express, by way of irony, the last and most trivial degree of intimacy and regard." This quotation does the real work — it confirms that even in Blackstone's era, the term's legal utility had largely collapsed into rhetorical usage.
Black's second edition simply redirects to the entry for COUSIN, which is characteristic of the second edition's economy with archaic terms.
Burrill's Law Dictionary preserves a fragment of the same Blackstone passage but the entry appears corrupted or truncated in the available source text, with extraneous text from an adjacent entry ("cassum facere") running into the quater cousin passage. Researchers relying on Burrill for this term should treat the entry as confirmatory of the Blackstone citation only, not as independent authority.
None of the historical dictionaries engage with the civil law versus canon law computation problem, which limits their utility for inheritance research. For that question, historical treatises on the law of descent and distribution are more reliable guides.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term has no meaningful modern jurisdictional variation because it has dropped out of active legal usage. Historical jurisdictional differences in degree-of-kinship computation — particularly between common law and civil law jurisdictions — are relevant background for interpreting older documents but do not map onto current law in any U.S. or English jurisdiction.
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