Relict meaning

Relict describes the surviving husband or wife of a deceased person in the context of succession, probate/confirmation and estate administration. It is a historical, descriptive term rather than one generally defined in modern legislation, and is most often encountered in older wills, deeds, title records, probate/confirmation papers and case reports. England & Wales and Northern Ireland: usage is largely archaic. Contemporary probate and intestacy law refers to the “surviving spouse or civil partner”. Practitioners still meet “relict” when construing historic instruments or tracing title. Scotland: the term appears more frequently in historic Scots law materials. It relates to the surviving spouse’s legal rights against the estate (traditionally termed jus relictae for a widow and jus relicti for a widower) and to prior rights on intestacy. Modern statutes and practice use “surviving spouse or civil partner”, and confirmation documents usually reserve “relict” to quotations from older sources. Ireland: usage is similarly historical; Succession Act 1965 and later legislation use “spouse” and, following subsequent reforms, “civil partner”. Practical point: if a document calls someone the “relict” of X, it identifies them as X’s surviving spouse (not a cohabitant and, historically, not a civil partner). See also jus relictae and jus relicti.