Definition
A phrase used in pleading and conveyancing to describe an instrument that carries a date on its face — that is, a document showing a specified date as part of its written content. "Bearing date the [day] of [month]" is a conventional formula used to introduce the date of an instrument being recited, referenced, or pleaded.
The phrase performs a precise documentary function: it identifies the date appearing on the face of the instrument itself, as opposed to the date the instrument was executed, delivered, or took legal effect, which may differ.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Present participle and gerund of "bear date" — to carry or show a date.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; "bear" in its general sense means to carry or display.
The ordinary meaning tracks reasonably close to the legal meaning, but the gap matters in practice. In common usage, a document "bearing a date" simply means it has a date written on it. In legal usage, the phrase is a term of art introducing that date into pleading or instrument recital with specific procedural consequences — particularly regarding what the drafter is and is not alleging about when an instrument was made or became operative.
Common Confusion
"Bearing date" is not the same as alleging the date of making. Bouvier's specifically flags this trap: if a plaintiff in a declaration alleges that a defendant "made his promissory note on such a day," that allegation is not equivalent to alleging the note bore that date. A note produced at trial carrying a different date on its face will create a variance — but only if the pleading used language expressly tied to the face date. Conversely, an allegation that an instrument was "made" on a certain day does not commit the pleader to the date appearing on the instrument's face. The distinction between the date of making and the date on the face of the instrument is technically significant and has generated pleading variances.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in historical pleading records, deed books, or contract litigation materials will encounter "bearing date" as a standard formulaic phrase. Its presence signals the drafter was deliberately anchoring a recital to the face date of the instrument — a choice with variance consequences if the date on the instrument's face differed from other dates in evidence.
The phrase appears almost exclusively in pre-twentieth-century materials. Modern drafting convention has largely abandoned it in favor of "dated [day] of [month]" or explicit recital of the date. Researchers reading historical declarations, conveyances, and pleadings must recognize the phrase as a term of art rather than mere description. Mistaking "bearing date" for a general reference to when an instrument was created can cause misreading of what the pleader actually alleged and whether a variance issue existed.
In conveyancing records, "bearing date" introduces the date of a deed or instrument as part of its formal description and typically appears near the opening of a recital chain. In pleading, it appears in declarations when a party references an instrument and needs to specify its face date without necessarily committing to the date of execution or delivery.
Jurisdictional variation in pleading rules governed how strictly variance doctrine applied, meaning the consequences of using or omitting "bearing date" could differ across courts. Researchers examining litigation records should note the jurisdiction and era before drawing conclusions about the legal significance of the phrase's presence or absence.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four historical dictionaries treat this term consistently and concisely, reflecting its status as settled legal shorthand rather than a contested concept. All four agree on the core meaning: "bearing date" means the instrument discloses a date on its face.
Black's and Burrill's frame the definition succinctly — "disclosing a date on its face" and "dated; having a date on the face," respectively. Burrill's Latin equivalent, gerens datum, confirms the phrase's roots in formal Latin pleading convention.
Bouvier's is the most instructive of the four, providing the critical practical warning: alleging a promissory note was "made" on a particular day is not the same as alleging it bore that date, and a note produced bearing a different date will create a variance only in the latter circumstance. This distinction is the phrase's main legal content, and Bouvier's treatment of it is the most useful entry for litigation researchers.
Rapalje & Lawrence catalogues the phrase in its index-entry style, pointing to New Jersey and English case law references (6 Halst.; Ld. Raym. 335, 336; 3 Salk. 120) that confirm the phrase's use in pleading practice across jurisdictions.
None of the historical dictionaries address the phrase's declining use in modern drafting or explain when "bearing date" may be substituted without consequence by modern equivalents. That gap is the researcher's responsibility to bridge when moving between historical and contemporary materials.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase appears in both English and American legal materials through the nineteenth century. Its pleading significance was tied to variance doctrine, which was governed by individual jurisdiction's procedural rules. Courts applying strict common-law pleading standards were more likely to give the phrase operative legal weight than courts operating under code pleading reforms.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly addresses bearing date as a pleading or conveyancing convention. The encyclopedia entries surfaced — covering effective dates in veterans' benefits law, marital property valuation dates, and Second Amendment rights — address date-related concepts in substantive law contexts unrelated to this term.