The sealed document
Yep, it happened again.
And you’d think by now The Legal Genealogist would know better.
On Tuesday, the blog focused on a reader question about certified documents. Michael Stills wanted to know about the raised seal on many vital records and its legal implications.1
And I could have — should have! — predicted that somebody would come right back and ask about another kind of seal: the wax seal you see on some very old documents and the handwritten word “seal” surrounded by a squiggly circle or line or the letters “L.S.” that you see on many others.
Which means, of course, that a reader promptly asked about those wax seals and handwritten seals. What are they all about?
Now I’ve written about this before2 but let’s review it again so folks have the whole context in one place… or at least in one week.
A seal, in the law, is “an impression upon wax, wafer, or some other tenacious substance capable of being impressed” and “a particular sign, made to attest, in the most formal manner, the execution of an instrument.”3
A seal, then, is a “device used to create an impression or imprint on paper utilizing wax or a stamp”4 or “a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made.”5
So a sealed instrument is “an instrument of writing to which the party to be bound has affixed, not only his name, but also his seal, or (in those jurisdictions where it is allowed) a scroll.”6
That scroll, in turn, is “a mark intended to supply the place of a seal, made with a pen or other instrument of writing.”7 You’ll see it all the time on so many court documents and land documents and contracts of sale for so many things. Down at the bottom, next to the signature, whether it’s the original document or the copy recorded by the clerk in a will book or deed book or court minute book.
It’s there in a squiggly circle. Or maybe it’s just there by itself. The abbreviation “L.S.” or the word “seal.”
The technical legal term is locus sigilli — the place of the seal. And it’s defined simply as “the place where a seal is to be affixed, or a scroll which stands instead of a seal.”8 And, “In many of the states, instead of sealing deeds, writs, and other papers or documents requiring it, a scroll is made in which the letters L. S. are printed or written, which is an abbreviation of Locus Sigilli.”9
And in either case, as a wax seal or a scroll in place of a seal, its purpose was “to execute a legal document or guarantee the document’s authenticity.”10
Here’s a more complete explanation:
In the law, a seal affixed to a contract or other legal instrument has had special legal significance at various times in the jurisdictions that recognise it. In the courts of common law jurisdictions, a contract which was sealed (“made under seal”) was treated differently from other written contracts (which were “made under hand”), although this practice gradually fell out of favour in most of these jurisdictions in the 19th and early 20th century. The legal term seal arises from the wax seal used throughout history for authentication (among other purposes).
Originally, only a wax seal was accepted as a seal by the courts, but by the 19th century many jurisdictions had relaxed the definition to include an impression in the paper on which the instrument was printed, an embossed paper wafer affixed to an instrument, a scroll made with a pen, or the printed words “Seal” or “L.S.” (standing for the Latin term locus sigilli meaning “place of the seal”).
Notwithstanding their reduced significance, seals are still used on contracts, usually in the impression on paper form.11
The Wikipedia page goes on to note that, in the United States, “wax seals were never expressly required.” It cites the Restatement (Second) of Contracts:
A seal is a piece of wax, a wafer or other substance, affixed to the paper or other material on which a promise, release or conveyance is written, or a scroll or sign, however made, on such paper or other material, or an impression made thereon; provided that by a recital or by the appearance of the document an intention of the promisor, releasor or grantor is manifested that the substance, scroll, sign or impression shall be a seal.12
Now on some older documents you will see an actual wax impression with a raised seal. And on some newer documents you will see a raised seal but without the wax impression (many notarized documents will have the raised seal of the notary and corporate documents often have to have the corporate seal).
But for our poorer ancestors without the sealing-wax and without the signet rings or other fancy stuff…
A squiggly circle and the word seal or the letters L.S. did just fine.
SOURCES
Image: German “L.S.” mark from 1687, for locus sigilli, Wikimedia Commons.
- Judy G. Russell, “Certifying the record,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 9 Jan 2018 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 11 Jan 2018). ↩
- Ibid., “… And sealing-wax,” posted 15 Mar 2017. ↩
- Henry Campbell Black, A Dictionary of Law (St. Paul, Minn. : West, 1891), 1068, “seal.” ↩
- Wex, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex : accessed 11 Jan 2018), “seal.” ↩
- Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Seal (emblem),” rev. 8 Jan 2018. ↩
- Black, A Dictionary of Law, 1069, “sealed instrument.” ↩
- Ibid., 1067, “scroll.” ↩
- Black, A Dictionary of Law, 731, “locus sigilli.” ↩
- John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union, rev. 6th ed. (Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1856), II: 83, “locus sigilli.” ↩
- Wex, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex : accessed 11 Jan 2018), “seal.” ↩
- Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Seal (contract law),” rev. 14 Oct 2015. ↩
- Restatement (Second) of Contracts, §96, in Tyrell Williams, “Restatement of the Law of Contracts of the American Law Institute, Sections 95-110,” 18 Washington Univ. Law Review (January 1933): 93; PDF version, Open Scholarship (http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/ : accessed 11 Jan 2018). ↩
I love studying paleography and reading old documents. I have had to correct people who thought L.S. meant “Legal Signature.” But how does the term relate to court documents that are sealed – e.g., grand jury indictments, criminal and juvenile records, &c – that are sealed from public view but sometimes later unsealed.
Michael Stills opened a can of worms, what?
You saw my question coming, right?
Sigh… Monday. (Something else scheduled for tomorrow…)
Is there any legal significance to something “sealed with a kiss”? 😉
SOMEBODY in my SLIG class is going to get a special extra homework assignment… Just sayin’…
And do letters to Santa and the Easter Bunny still require a Christmas Seal or an Easter Seal to be legally binding?
Sigh…
I was a notary public for 30 years (until I retired) and HATED it when the State of Idaho went from the embossed seal to a stamp. Somehow it didn’t seem as official. I know the reason was because many documents were being sent by fax (at that time) and the raised “seal” didn’t show up. But the documents didn’t seems as “official” to me.
As a genealogist, I also lament the loss of the raised seal… that moment, when you’re sitting in an archive, and can carefully and gently run your fingers over the raised seal on your own ancestor’s document… there’s not much like it.
In my state you could use a raised seal if you liked, but the stamp was what made the notarization official, because it included the notary’s license number and the date their term of office expired, both of which were required by law.
Many of us had a seal, but only for use in addition to the stamp on documents being sent to one of the states that refused to recognize the legally required stamp.
However, my favorite (not) was a fully-exemplified certified copy for use in a foreign country that had not signed on to the simplified procedure established by a treaty known as the Hague Convention.
The Corporate Secretary, the official custodian of the corporation’s minute books, would make a copy of the corporate resolution authorizing, say, the opening of a bank account in Dubai, and add his or her certification stating that it was an accurate copy of the original resolution as recorded in the minutes. A notary would then certify that the person who had signed the certification was indeed the Corporate Secretary. Next, the County Clerk, who maintains an official file keeping track of the commissions of all the county’s notaries, would certify that the notary was indeed a licensed notary. Then, the document would then be sent to the state capital for the Department of State to certify that the County Clerk was indeed the official County Clerk. Finally, the whole thing would be sent down to Washington, DC for the US Secretary of State to certify that the state’s certification had indeed been signed by the Secretary of State of the state.
What many of the foreign lawyers failed to understand is the function of a notary in the US legal system, which is nothing like the extensive responsibilities of a notary in the legal systems of many foreign countries. They thought those extra signatures all attested to the truthfulness of the facts recited in underlying document, when they actually only attested to the identity of the last person to have signed it.
One of the big differences is that an agreement under seal is subject to the law of covenant while an agreement made without a seal(either oral or by signed document) is subject to the law of contract. The law of covenant developed long before the law of contract, at a time when the courts were willing to enforce a promise made without a corresponding promise for something in return. The seal was an evidentiary tool, used to prove the promise. In contrast, the law of contract generally requires an exchange of something for something (i.e. consideration). Nowadays, courts and lawyers will simply say a contract made under seal is one that doesn’t require consideration, which is a bit of an oversimplification in order to bridge the concepts of covenant and contract.
True, even if enough to make a third year law student flinch. 🙂
But of great interest to law nerds. 🙂
All two or three of us…
So, Sean and Judy, why do deeds typically have consideration (even if only nominal) but are also recorded as signed John Doe {L.S.}? Isn’t that redundant?
A deed is not a contract but rather an instrument evidencing a conveyance that actually results in the transfer of legal title (“a document that transfers ownership of real estate and is recorded in the local public land records”). So it’s hemmed in with all kinds of formalities that an ordinary business deal wouldn’t be. Because it looks like a contract, the writers often include consideration but that can be for love and affection or $1 and other good and valuable consideration. It’s actually legally not required today in most jurisdictions at all. What’s absolutely essential for a valid deed: (a) in writing, (b) identifying the property, (c) signed by the person conveying and (d) physically delivered to the person receiving.
I found this article and discussion while trying to learn how to determine if an image of a older document I might find online (or rarely) in an archives contained an original signature or was a copied document with the scribe’s facsimile of the writer’s signature. Knowing now, that the squiggly circle could have been applied by the document’s creator ILO an impression, I guess I am now needing to know how a copied document would indicate that it is a copy and indicate the presence of either an embossed or a hand-drawn seal?
Thank you,
There are no absolute sure-fire ways except… if it’s in a book (as opposed to among loose papers), it’s much more likely to be a clerk’s copy AND if the handwriting is all the same.