[f. SURVIVOR + -SHIP.]
1. Law, etc. a. The condition of a survivor, or the fact of one person surviving another or others, considered in relation to some right or privilege depending on such survival or the period of it.
Presumption of survivorship, the presumption of the momentary or brief survival of one of a number of persons who have perished by the same calamity, as affecting rights of inheritance.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3315/4. An Order, No 3179, Sir John Burgoyne … for 100 l. on Survivorships, on the Life of Lucy Burgoyne.
1772. R. Price, Observ. Reversionary Payments (ed. 2), 75. Since the duration of survivorship is in the present case … equal to the duration of marriage.
1815. J. Milne (title), A treatise on the valuation of annuities and assurances on lives and survivorships.
1825. Beck’s Elem. Med. Jurispr., 209. Of the presumption of survivorship of mother or child, when both die during delivery. Ibid., 211. Of the presumption of survivorship of persons of different ages, destroyed by a common accident.
1834. Ht. Martineau, Farrers, vii. 114. Jane ought to have given the largest proportion, not only because she had no claims upon her, but because her survivorship enriched her by means of this very death.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 330/2. The chance of survivorship is that of one individual, now of a given age, surviving another, also now of a given age.
1872. Hist. Broughton Place Church, 56. The Rev. Andrew Thomson was inducted as colleague and, in case of survivorship, successor to the Rev. Dr. Brown.
b. A right depending on survival; e.g., the right of the survivor or survivors of a number of joint-tenants or other persons having a joint interest, to take the whole on the death of the other or others; the right of future succession, in case of survival, to some office not vacant at the time of the grant.
a. 1625. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 60. Two Abbots cannot bee Ioyntenants … for they cannot haue the effect of it, which is suruiuorship.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xiii. (1739), 24. The Clergy … turned both King and Lords out, and shut the doors after them, and so possessed themselves of the whole by Survivorship.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. lvii. The Conservatorship … may by survivorship accrue to a Colour-man in the Strand.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 163. Where the Grant has been by Survivorship.
1827. Jarman, Powell’s Devises, II. 317. That each annuitant should receive a proportionable share of his fortune, with benefit of survivorship and right of accruer.
1860. Commercial Handbk., 70. Survivorship in Life Assurance, a reversionary benefit, contingent upon certain lives being survivors.
1860. Freer, Hen. IV., II. II. iv. 89. He offered the government of Burgundy, with the survivorship for his son.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc., s.v., The values of annuities and assurances in every order of survivorship, where there are only three lives.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 598/1. On the death of one trustee there is survivorship.
† c. concr. That which comes to a person by survivorship. Obs. rare.
1633. Sir J. Boroughs, Sov. Brit. Seas (1651), 23. Canutus the Dane, coming not long after to be king first of halfe the Realme … and after the death of Edmond of the whole Survivorshippe.
d. attrib.: survivorship annuity (see quot.).
1838. De Morgan, Ess. Probab., 206. To find … the value of an annuity on the life of B, aged n, the first payment of which is to be made at the end of the year in which the life of A, aged m, fails. This is called a survivorship annuity, since it can never be paid unless B survive A.
2. gen. The state or condition of being a survivor; survival.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 53, ¶ 2. We are now going into the Country together, with only one Hope for making this Life agreeable, Survivorship. Ibid. (1711), Spect., No. 192, ¶ 2. The Survivorship of a worthy Man in his Son.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VI. 334. In case of survivorship, I most cheerfully accept of the sacred office you are pleased to offer me.
1837. De Quincey, Rev. Tartars, Wks. 1854, IV. 132. As old men, we reap nothing from our sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship.
1865. Grote, Plato, II. xxiii. 203. The Epikureans denied altogether the survivorship of soul over body.
1877. J. Martineau, in Drummond & Upton, Life & Lett. (1902), viii. II. 38. It is better to have, than to give, the grief of survivorship.
3. A body of survivors.
1867. Woolrich, Bar & Serjeant-at-Law, 7. The Bar will survive, and the survivorship will consist of the Queen’s Counsel and the Barristers-at-Law.
