Definition
In Scots law, a tercer is a widow who holds a one-third life interest in her deceased husband's heritable (real) property as her legal jointure. The tercer's right — called terce — arose by operation of law upon the husband's death, entitling the widow to possession and use of one-third of the lands her husband held in fee simple during the marriage, provided she had not accepted a conventional jointure in its place.
The tercer did not own the land outright; she held a life interest only. On her death or remarriage (in some periods), the right extinguished and the land reverted to the heir.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is exclusively Scots law and will appear only in Scottish legal sources, historical treatises on Scottish property and succession, and comparative legal works addressing civil-law-influenced jurisdictions. Researchers working in English common law sources will not encounter it; if the term appears in an English document, treat it as a borrowing or reference to Scottish practice.
The underlying right — terce — was abolished in Scotland by the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964, which replaced the old heritable-property rights of surviving spouses (terce for widows, courtesy for widowers) with a unified prior rights and legal rights scheme. Any source predating 1964 discussing terce or tercer reflects law that is no longer operative. Post-1964 Scottish succession sources will not use the term in a living-law context, though it will appear in historical commentary and estate administration records predating the reform.
Researchers should distinguish the person (the tercer, the widow holding the right) from the right itself (terce). Historical sources sometimes use the terms interchangeably or imprecisely. The standard authority cited across all three source dictionaries is Kames's Principles of Equity, a foundational Scots equity treatise — its prefix material on terce remains the canonical reference point in the historical dictionary tradition.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in precise agreement: all three define tercer identically as a widow possessing the third part of her husband's land as her legal jointure, and all three cite Kames's Equity as authority. The consistency across sources reflects that this was a settled, narrow technical term with no contested meaning in the legal dictionary tradition.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the procedural mechanics by which terce was established or contested, the conditions under which a widow might be excluded (acceptance of a conventional jointure being the primary bar), or the relationship between terce and the separate Scots law concept of legal rights in moveable property (jus relictae). Researchers needing fuller treatment should consult Kames directly or later Scottish institutional writers such as Erskine's Institute of the Law of Scotland or Bell's Principles of the Law of Scotland, which address terce in substantive depth.
Jurisdictional Note
Tercer and the right of terce are exclusively Scots law concepts with no direct common law equivalent. The nearest English analog is dower, but the two differ in significant ways — dower applied to all lands held at any point during marriage, while terce was fixed at one-third and had different conditions of attachment. Researchers should not treat the terms as interchangeable across jurisdictions.