Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

JUS MARITI, n.phr. Sc. Law: the right of property orig. vested in the husband on marriage in all his wife's moveables except her paraphernalia, i.e. clothes, jewelry and their receptacles (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 47). Obs. since 1881. [′dʒʌs mɑ′riti]Sc. c.1701 Analecta Scot. (Maidment 1837) II. 163:
Thus carrying of[f] to her Daughters Tocher what belongs to him by his Jus Mariti.Sc. 1827 C. I. Johnstone Eliz. de Bruce II. vi.:
I have law enough, and from a sure hand, to ken that the juice mariti cannot 'tach a gudewife like the auld Leddy's providing o' sheets, napery, and parapharnals marked in leal-steak wi' her ain maiden name E.F.Sc. 1846 P. Fraser Husband & Wife I. 344:
Jus mariti . . . is the right by which the husband acquires to himself absolutely the personal property of his wife.Sc. 1927 Gloag and Henderson Intro. Sc. Law 521:
By the Married Women's Property (Scotland) Act, 1881, the jus mariti was abolished in the case of marriages contracted after the date of the passing of the Act.Sc. 1955 Scotsman (3 Dec.) 11:
His Lordship said it might be that from a business point of view the expediency of entering into a marriage contract had changed in changing times. What formerly protected the bride's fortune from the jus mariti of her husband and the diligence of his creditors might now merely expose it to the perils of taxation.