Definition
A Latin term from old English law meaning "to counterfeit." The term appears in medieval legal records and the Registrum Omnium Brevium (Register of Original Writs) as part of formulaic pleading language describing the act of falsely making or imitating something — most commonly an official seal — with intent to deceive. Its past participial form, controfacta, signifies something that has been counterfeited.
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs to the Latin formulaic vocabulary of medieval English writs and pleadings. Researchers encountering it will almost certainly do so in transcriptions of original writs, indictments, or court rolls from the medieval and early modern period, not in modern legal instruments.
The practical research trap here is misreading controfecisset — the past subjunctive form appearing in the Registrum — as a variant spelling of a different term. It is the third-person singular past subjunctive of controfacere, meaning "he had counterfeited" in a dependent clause, and its grammatical form reflects the indirect allegation structure of writ pleading rather than a distinct legal concept.
Researchers working on the history of forgery and counterfeiting law should note that controfacere is a procedural artifact: it identifies what act was alleged, not what offense was charged. The substantive law of counterfeiting in England developed across multiple statutes (including various treason statutes addressing coin and seal forgery), and this Latin verb would appear in writs across several distinct legal contexts — counterfeiting the king's seal, a noble's seal, commercial documents — depending on the period and the forum. Do not assume the underlying charge is uniform simply because the verb is consistent.
Cross-referencing with the Registrum Omnium Brevium is essential for contextualizing any writ containing this term. Burrill's single citation to Reg. Orig. 42 provides an anchor, but the Registrum covers a wide range of writs and the precise writ form will determine the nature of the proceeding.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only substantive coverage among Law Mind's shelf sources. The entry is spare: Burrill identifies the term as Latin, locates it in old English law, translates it as "to counterfeit," and supplies the illustrative phrase sigillum controfecisset — "(he) had counterfeited the seal" — with a citation to Reg. Orig. 42. He also notes the participial form controfacta from the same source.
No broader treatment of the term appears in the historical dictionary corpus available here. This is unsurprising: controfacere is a working term of medieval Latin pleading, not a term of art that would generate doctrinal commentary. Historical sources that discuss the substance of counterfeiting law in England would not necessarily index under this Latin verb, and researchers should not expect to find it in common law treatises on forgery or fraud without already knowing to look for it.
The entry does not illuminate what legal consequences attached to the act described, what courts had jurisdiction, or how the term's usage evolved across centuries. Those questions require consulting the Registrum directly and situating the writ in its procedural context.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the Latin writ vocabulary of medieval and early modern English law. It has no recognized use in American legal practice or modern common law jurisdictions.