The Documents
Seventeenth-century Great Britain had many types of legal contract, including, wills, indentures, deeds, and bonds. Professor Lee’s collection of legal documents are mostly deeds or acts that transfer lands or other property from one person to another. This exhibit shows a will and a sasine, both of which are forms of indenture, a term describing an early form of legal contract. Examples of indentures include signed wills and marriage contracts, as well as deeds or land contracts.
Another important element of authentication was signatures by witnesses who confirmed the identity of the people involved. Both the will and the sasines had witness signatures.
Early modern indentures used authentication devices to prove the document’s authenticity. Seals and serrated edges that made it possible to exactly match two sections together. The Wentworth Will and Testament is authenticated with seals (seen at the bottom of the document).
To put one’s signature or other identifying mark upon (a document), esp. at the end or foot,typically to signify consent or agreement, or to declare that one is a witness; to signify assent to or compliance with (something), by signing one’s name; to attest (a particular viewpoint or position) by one’s signature.
“Subscribe,” Oxford English Dictionary
Watch a clip from Season 2 of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, as James Fraser deeds his estate, Lallybroch, to his nephew before heading to the Battle of Culloden. Jamie’s wife Clare Fraser and godfather Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser witness the signature.
[Season 2, Episode 13]
