Definition
A writ in English law directing the mayor of the staple to certify to the Lord Chancellor the terms of a statute-staple that had been acknowledged before him, issued specifically in cases where the party holding the document detained it and refused to produce it. The writ compelled official certification of the underlying obligation when the private instrument itself was unavailable due to the obligor's or holder's noncompliance.
The statute-staple was a form of registered debt instrument, acknowledged before an authorized official at a staple town, that gave creditors an expedited means of obtaining satisfaction from a debtor's lands, goods, and person. Where a party refused to surrender or produce the original statute-staple, this writ provided the mechanism to reconstruct the record through the certifying authority — the mayor of the staple — rather than through the document itself.
---
Common Confusion
The term is closely related to, but distinct from, the statute-staple itself and from the writ of elegit or other debt-enforcement writs. This writ does not initiate enforcement; it is a preliminary certification mechanism — a way of getting the fact of the acknowledged obligation before the Chancellor when the physical instrument has been suppressed or withheld. Researchers should not treat it as an enforcement writ in its own right.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This is a rare, highly specialized writ belonging to the medieval and early modern English mercantile law regime built around the staple system. Researchers will encounter it, if at all, in the context of staple court records, Chancery proceedings, or treatises on the law merchant. A few navigational points:
The term appears in sources under varying spellings. Black's 2nd Edition Supplemental renders it "Reoognitione," which is almost certainly a typographical corruption of "Recognitione" — the correct Latin. Researchers searching historical databases or indices should query both spellings and also the normalized form Certificando de Recognitione Stapulae.
The staple system itself was a creature of specific English statutory authority, primarily rooted in the Statute of the Staple (1353) and related legislation governing designated towns where wool, leather, and other regulated commodities were traded and debt obligations were registered. This writ belongs to that specific procedural ecosystem and has no analog in modern law.
Because the writ's purpose was to substitute official certification for a suppressed private document, it sits at an intersection of equity procedure (Chancery), administrative function (the mayor of the staple as a quasi-judicial officer), and mercantile debt law. Researchers working on the development of equitable jurisdiction over documents and records may find this writ relevant as an early example of compelled official certification in lieu of production.
The staple system declined with the transformation of English commercial law through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the writ fell into complete disuse. It will not appear in any modern procedural context.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Edition, Supplemental) provides the only dictionary entry identified in the Law Mind corpus. The definition is brief and truncated — the source text ends with "There," indicating the entry is incomplete as captured. Despite this, the core information is clear: the writ ran to the mayor of the staple; the occasion for its issuance was the party's detention of and refusal to produce the statute-staple; and the relief sought was certification to the Lord Chancellor.
No additional historical dictionary sources are available in the corpus for this term. Given its extreme specificity, this is unsurprising — the writ is sufficiently obscure that even comprehensive historical legal dictionaries often omit or abbreviate it. Researchers needing fuller treatment should consult primary sources in Chancery records or specialized historical scholarship on the English staple courts and the law merchant.
The typographical error in the Black's entry ("Reoognitione" for "Recognitione") should be noted by anyone relying on that source for indexing or citation purposes.
---
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is exclusively English in origin and has no equivalent in American law. The staple system was never transplanted to the American colonies in operative form. Researchers working in American legal history will not encounter this writ in domestic sources.
---