COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDSAuthored

The Law Mind • 729 words

Definition

Officers appointed by the executive authority of one state to reside and act in another state (or territory), empowered to take acknowledgments of deeds and other instruments intended for use or recordation in the appointing state. A commissioner of deeds is, in essence, an interstate authentication officer: their function is to give legal validity in State A to a document executed by a party physically located in State B, without requiring that party to return home or appear before a local official whose authority State A does not automatically recognize.

The core powers of a commissioner of deeds generally include: taking and certifying acknowledgments of deeds, mortgages, and other written instruments; administering oaths and affirmations; and taking depositions and affidavits to be used in the appointing state. Bouvier notes that commissioners of deeds possess, for the most part, all the powers of a notary public with one significant exception: they do not have authority to protest negotiable paper (bills of exchange, promissory notes). That power remains exclusive to notaries.

Why It Matters in Research

This office is tied to a specific historical problem that modern law has largely solved. Before the widespread adoption of uniform notarial acts and interstate reciprocity statutes, a deed acknowledged before an out-of-state notary could be refused recordation back home because the appointing state had no mechanism to verify the notary's authority or the authenticity of their seal. Commissioners of deeds filled that gap: they were creatures of the appointing state, whose authority derived directly from that state's governor, and whose certificates carried automatic recognition in the appointing state's recording offices.

Researchers working with property conveyance records from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries will encounter this office frequently, particularly in instruments executed in commercial cities — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago — by parties conveying property in distant states. The commissioner's certificate was the authenticating mechanism, and its absence or defect could cloud title.

The practical importance of this office declined significantly after states enacted uniform acknowledgment statutes and, later, the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (1982, revised 2010), which enabled out-of-state notaries' acts to be accepted directly. Today the office survives in some states but is largely redundant. New York retains commissioners of deeds as a municipal-level office with a narrower, local function — a point that can confuse researchers who encounter the term in different contexts.

Do not assume that a commissioner of deeds mentioned in a late-twentieth-century New York source is performing the same interstate authentication role described in nineteenth-century sources. The title migrated to a different function.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's, Bouvier's, and Rapalje & Lawrence are in close agreement on the essential definition, and Bouvier's entry draws directly on Rapalje & Lawrence without material addition. All three sources identify the appointing mechanism (state governor), the operative jurisdiction (residence in another state), and the core power (acknowledgments, oaths). The notable substantive point that Bouvier adds — that commissioners lack the notarial power to protest negotiable paper — is absent from Black's and worth preserving for researchers examining instrument authentication in commercial contexts.

None of the historical sources addresses the office's gradual obsolescence, the rise of competing mechanisms under uniform acts, or the divergent modern use of the title in certain jurisdictions. Researchers should treat these dictionary entries as accurate for their era while understanding that they describe a problem-solving institution that the law eventually solved another way.

Jurisdictional Note

The office historically existed by statute in most American states, though the enabling legislation varied in scope and the powers conferred. New York's version evolved into a local government office (commissioners of deeds for the City of New York) with authority to take acknowledgments and administer oaths within the city, functioning more like a notary public than an interstate authentication officer. Researchers should confirm the governing statute for the appointing state and period in question before drawing conclusions about the scope of a particular commissioner's authority.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia: Mortgages — Promissory Note and Deed of Trust (property_55) — relevant to the acknowledgment and recordation context in which commissioners of deeds most frequently operated.

COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Of- ficers empowered by the government of one state to reside in another state, and there take acknowledgments of deeds and other papers which are to be used as evidence or put on record in the former state.

COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDSmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Officers appointed by the governors of many of the states, resident in another state or territory, empowered to take ac- knowledgments, administer oaths, etc., to be used in the state from which they de- rive their appointment. They have, for the most part, all the powers of a notary public, except that of protesting negotiable paper. Rap. & Lawr. Law Dict.

COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDSmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

-Officers empowered, in many of the COMMISSIONERS OF BAIL.- States, to take acknowledgments, adminOfficers sometimes appointed by courts ister oaths, &c. They have, for the most * The following are the most important classes Somerset House. The commissioners of inland of commissioners at present existing in England: Commissioners for taking acknowledgments of married women are either special-i. e. appointed for taking the acknowledgments in a particular case (as where the married woman is abroad)- or perpetual. Stats. 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 74, 881 et seq.; 23 and 24 Vict. c. 127, 30; Shelf. R. P. Stat. 384. Commissioners in bankruptcy.-Formerly the jurisdiction over bankrupts' persons and estates was exercised by commissioners appointed by a commission issued by the lord chancellor under the great seal in each case, the lord chancellor exercising superintendence over the proceedings. (Robs. Bankr. 2.) By Stat. 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 56, a court of bankruptcy consisting of four judges (exercising as a court of review the jurisdiction previously exercised by the lord chancellor) and six commissioners (who were permanent officials) was constituted; country commissioners were also appointed from time to time. The proceedings in each case were commenced by a fiat, called a London or a country fiat, according to circumstances, and issued out of chancery instead of by a commission. (Robs. Bankr. 4.) By Stat. 5 and 6 Vict. c. 122, permanent district commissioners, attached to district courts in the country, were appointed. (Id. 6.) Commissioners in bankruptcy were abolished by the Bankruptcy Act, 1869. 22 128, 130. Commissioners in lunacy are officers appointed under Stat. 8 and 9 Vict. c. 100. They have the control of lunatic asylums and of houses licensed for the reception of lunatics, which they are required to visit periodically, but they have no jurisdiction over the property or persons of lunatics, nor have they anything to do with lunatics so found by inquisition, unless confined in an asylum or licensed house. Second Rep. of Legal Dep. Comm. 60; Pope Lun. 37; Stat. 8 and 9 Vict. c. 100; 16 and 17 Vict. cc. 96, 97; 18 and 19 Vict. c. 105; 25 and 26 Vict. c. 111. Commissioners of inland revenue have for their functions to superintend the collection of the Internal taxes (as opposed to the customs or frontier duties), such as the land tax, the income tax, succession and legacy duties, and stamp duties. (Dow. St. L. 4, 5. Their offices are in revenue are the result of the consolidation, in 1849, of the commissioners of stamps and taxes with the commissioners of excise. Id. 119. Commissioners of patents investigate applications for patents, have the letters-patent prepared, and issue their warrant for having them sealed with the great seal; they also keep the register of patents and assignments (Stat. 15 and 16 Vict. c. 83), and have the superintendence of the registry of trade-marks. (Stat. 38 and 39 Vict. c. 91.) The commissioners themselves are high judicial officers, and all the routine work is performed by clerks. Commissioners of woods, &c. The commissioners of woods, forests and land revenues, and of works and public buildings, are two boards appointed for the superintendence of the public property indicated by their titles, which includes the royal parks in and near London and the other royal demesnes given up by the crown on the settlement of the civil list. Stat. 14 and 15 Vict. c. 42; 15 and 16 Vict. c. 62; 16 and 17 Vict. c. 56, and numerous other acts down to 36 and 37 Vict. c. 36; 2 Steph. Com. 535. Commissioners to administer oaths are solicitors appointed to administer oaths to persons making affidavits before them. Formerly they were appointed under various acts of parliament according to the court in which the affidavit was to be used (Stat. 29 C. II. c. 5; 16 and 17 Vict. c. 78; Dan. Ch. Pr. 646; Archb. Pr. 15, 1299. As to commissioners in Scotland and Ireland, see 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 42, § 42; Isle of Man and Channel Islands, 22 Vict. c. 16), but now all such commissioners may administer oaths in all causes and matters pending in the Supreme Court (Jud. Act, 1873, § 82), and in future all commissioners for this purpose will be appointed by the lord chancellor under the Judicature Act. (84.) Commissioners for taking oaths in the Supreme Court may also take oaths in the ecclesiastical courts. (Stat. 40 and 41 Vict. c. 25, 2 18.) A commissioner must not administer an oath to a person for whom he is acting as solicitor or agent. Archb, Pr. 1299; Dan. Ch. Pr 651, n.; Duke of Northumberland v. Todd, 7 Ch. D. 777.

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