First Colonial Notaries in America, 1639-1792
Colonial notaries lived in Atlantic seaport towns and were primarily involved with commercial and maritime matters.
Although notarial practices varied among the thirteen colonies, they were based on international law (Law of Nations) and the customs of the Law Merchant.
Early colonial notaries in British America were Englishmen, familiar with English common law and customs. To assure the documents they prepared would be accepted in England, other colonies, and other countries, they followed a system developed in England for authenticating documents used in international commerce.
The notary’s signature and seal on a document were valid evidence of its authenticity and assured its acceptance around the world.
Most notarial records of this time period have been lost or destroyed, making the history of colonial notaries difficult to discover.
Note: The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, and their flags, were joined in 1707 through the Act of Union, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Starting in 1707, the term British is used rather than English. Britannia was the Latin name used for the province during the Roman Empire, named after a Roman goddess.
First Colonies
There were attempted English colonies at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, 1587, (the Lost Colony), and little-known Popham, Maine, 1607, but they were not successful and had no notaries.
Jamestown, Virginia, 1607, [see image] initially struggled with disease, weather, and starvation before longer term settlement took hold. No information about notaries at Jamestown was found.
In addition to the English colonies, several other European countries had notaries in their expeditions or colonies, before the American Revolution, including Spain, France, Sweden, and The Netherlands.
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, in the Plymouth Colony, in 1620 [see image].
The first colonial notary was appointed in 1639. Colonial notaries served until the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
Scriveners and Colonial Notaries
At the time of colonial notaries arrival, the developing legal profession in England was mostly unregulated. Legal documents were prepared by scriveners and notaries. Scriveners were literate men who wrote private letters and legal instruments for clients. They were often school teachers or clergy with some knowledge of the law.
Notaries were sworn public officials, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, near London. They were registrars in ecclesiastic courts, dealing with marriage, divorce and testamentary matters, and in admiralty courts, dealing with maritime issues. These courts followed Roman civil law procedure.
By the seventeenth century, notaries were split into ecclesiastical notaries, and secular notaries who dealt with commercial matters and foreign trade.
Legal documents included bills of sale, bottomry bonds, bills of lading, charters, powers of attorney for merchants, protests of dishonored bills of exchange, and ship protests documenting damages to a ship or its cargo.
Notarial acts were accepted with full faith and credit in all nations.
Timeline of Colonial Notaries in the Thirteen Colonies
1. Connecticut, 1639. Thomas Fugill was appointed notary public in October 25, 1639 by the General Court in the Province of New Haven. He was the Secretary for the colony and the first notary in the English colonies.
“Tho. Fugill was chosen publique notary, to attend the court and from time to time to ke[ep] a faithful recorde of all passages and conclusions of the court, and of whatsoeu[er] else then or att other times shall by the court or magistrate be comitted to him concerning the ciuill publique occasions of the Plantation.”
from Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649
None of his notarial records have survived. Several years later, he was removed from office and excommunicated from the Church for dishonesty in land allotments. He returned to England and there is no further record of him.
Connecticut did not develop a busy commercial trade or major port like Boston, so few notaries were needed.
2. Massachusetts, 1644. Merchants in England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony followed the practices based on the Law Merchant, an international body of law.
The court ordered that Les Mercatoria, 1622, written by merchant Gerard de Malynes, be studied and used as a legal reference.
On November 13, 1644, William Aspinwall was appointed as Recorder and the first notary by the General Court.
His notary journal for 1644 to 1651, with over 1200 entries, survived and was published as a valuable historic record in 1903. It is the only known book of 17th century notarial records from any of the English colonies. Entries include a wide variety of maritime and commercial matters.
The notary’s oath of office required the notary to be true and sincere and keep a true record of all notarial matters.
In 1650, the General Court passed an Act listing the fees and duties of notaries. In 1684, the court authorized a notary seal, but it appears it was never implemented. Personal seals, hand-written seals, and flourishes may have been used.
It is not known how Aspinwall acquired notary knowledge. He may have studied a reference book or documents prepared by general notaries.
In October 1651, Aspinwall was charged with jury tampering and one year later he was removed from notary office and succeeded by Nathaniel Souther.
3. Virginia, 1662. The General Assembly appointed Henry Randolph, clerk of the assembly, as the first notary in March 1662. He was clerk of Henrico County from about 1656 and of the house of burgesses from 1660 to his death in 1672.
4. Rhode Island, 1663. Rhode Island received its royal charter in 1663, and the General Assembly appointed the Colony Recorder in Newport as notary public. Notary fees were established in 1766.
5. Maryland, 1663. The General Assembly appointed the Secretary of the Province as the first notary, authorized to affix the Lesser Seal of the Province to all attestations. The fee for an attestation was 50 pounds of tobacco, and 50 pounds for recording.
6. New York, 1664. Following the surrender of the Dutch in New Netherland to the English in 1664, Governor Richard Nicolls appointed Thomas Carveth as the first English notary in New York (formerly New Amsterdam).
7. New Hampshire, 1690. Thomas Brattle was appointed as the first notary by the Governor of Massachusetts, which also claimed jurisdiction over the Puritan colony at Portsmouth to expand its territory.
It also appears that notaries were appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury by 1679. A criminal statute prescribed penalties for a notary or keeper of public records who stole, falsified, defaced, or altered any record in his custody, under penalty of removal from office, disfranchisement, burning in the face, or fine.
Notary fees were regulated in 1718.
8. Pennsylvania, 1701. The first notary was appointed before 1701.
9. New Jersey, 1702. The Royal Province of New Jersey was formed in 1702. The first notary is not known.
10. South Carolina, 1741. William Whitside, from Georgetown, near Charleston, was appointed first notary in March.
11. Delaware, 1765. The Governor of Pennsylvania appointed Thomas McKean as notary in Delaware. Thomas McKean was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 [see image], Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1777-1799), and Second Governor of Pennsylvania (1799-1808).
12. North Carolina, 1777. The first notary was probably appointed shortly before this time.
13. Georgia, 1792. Courts elected notaries and the legislature passed a statute regulating notary fees.
Colonial Legal Forms
William West’s Symboleography, published in 1590, was the first major collection of legal forms, and the only book on notarial practice. Legal form books have been a part of English literature since the 12th century.
Before the American Revolution, lawyers in the British Colonies relied on legal forms reprinted from English legal books, in publications including The Young Clerk’s Magazine, Philadelphia, 1774. To save time, rather than hand copy the forms printed in books, pre-printed legal forms were published, known as legal blanks, and sold by bookstores along with legal books.
U.S. Notaries Today
Since the U.S. Constitution does not mention notaries, each state has authority to write and administer notary laws as it chooses. Fundamental notarial acts are the same, but there are differences in notary qualifications, training, testing, bonding, record keeping, seals, duties, and powers.
More states are adopting the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), bringing more uniformity to the nationwide notarial standards.
More states are also adopting new laws to authorize Remote Online Notarization (RON) using live two-way video conferencing technology and electronic documents over the internet.
Louisiana notaries are trained civil law notaries since their laws originate in France, once part of the Roman Empire.
Image Credits
1. A. British flag, red ensign, with a square Union Jack in the canton, used in British America until 1776
B. Grand Union Flag (Continental Colors, Congress Flag) 13 stripes, considered to be the first U.S. national flag, 1775-1777
C. Betsy Ross flag, 13 stars, 5-pointed, and 13 stripes, 1777-1795
2. Jamestown Virginia English Colonists Landing, 1607, National Park Service
3. Pilgrims Landing at Plymouth, MA 1620, Popular Graphic Arts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
4. Declaration of Independence, oil painting, Public Domain, 1819, John Trumbull, via Wikimedia Commons
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