Courtesy

COURTESY, OR CURTESY, Scotch law. A right which vests in the husband, and is in the nature of a life-rent. It is a counterpart of the terce. Courtesy requires, 1st. That there shall have been a living child born of the marriage, who is heir of the wife, or who, if surviving, would have been entitled to succeed. 2d. That the wife shall have succeeded to the subjects in question as heir either of line, or of talzie, or of provision. 1 Bell's Com. 61; 2 Ersk. 9, 53. See Curtesy.