Definition
A member of a corporation aggregate — that is, a person who belongs to a corporate body, whether by original formation or subsequent admission. The term most commonly appears in the context of founding or charter members but extends to any individual holding membership in a corporation as a constituted body.
Two distinctions are embedded in the term's use:
1. Corporator as original member: A person named in or admitted under the original act of incorporation; a founding member who participates in constituting the corporate body.
2. Corporator as current member: Any person who at a given moment holds membership in a corporation aggregate, regardless of when that membership was acquired.
A corporator is not the corporation itself. The corporate entity is legally distinct from its members, and either may sue the other.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A member of a corporation, especially one of the original members.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A member of a corporation, especially one of the original members.
The common and legal definitions are unusually close, but the common usage drifts toward treating "corporator" as a synonym for any corporate stakeholder or officer. The legal term is more precise: it designates membership in the corporate body, not a role within corporate governance. A director, officer, or employee is not a corporator by virtue of that role alone; a corporator holds a membership interest in the corporation as a body politic or aggregate.
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Common Confusion
CORPORATOR vs. STOCKHOLDER/SHAREHOLDER: In modern business corporations, the corporators are effectively the shareholders — the persons who together constitute the corporate body. But the terms are not interchangeable across all corporate forms. In non-stock corporations, mutual benefit organizations, and historically in public and quasi-public corporations, the concept of "corporator" captures membership that has no share-based equivalent. Using "shareholder" where "corporator" appears in a historical or non-stock context will produce analytical error.
CORPORATOR vs. OFFICER or DIRECTOR: A corporator holds membership in the corporate body; an officer or director holds a position within its governance structure. A corporator may also be an officer, but the categories are conceptually separate. Historical sources sometimes use "corporator" loosely to include officers, which can mislead.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term is primarily encountered in older legal materials — 18th and 19th century corporate charters, equity proceedings, and treatises on the law of corporations. Modern statutory corporate law largely abandoned "corporator" in favor of "shareholder," "member," or "stockholder," depending on corporate form. Researchers working with historical charter documents, early American municipal corporations, or ecclesiastical and charitable bodies will encounter the term regularly and must resist importing modern shareholding assumptions into it.
The critical navigational point is Bouvier's distinction that corporators are not the corporation: this principle — that the corporate entity is legally separate from its members — is foundational, but the cases Bouvier cites to support it arise in contexts (early federal and state courts, mid-19th century) where that separateness was still being actively litigated and defined. Researchers tracing the development of the corporate personality doctrine should treat corporator-focused litigation as a primary source for that evolution.
The term also surfaces in quasi-corporation analysis. Some early authorities applied "corporator" to members of bodies that were only partially incorporated or that lacked certain corporate capacities (no common seal, no succession). This usage is irregular and should be flagged when encountered.
In modern practice, "corporator" survives in specific institutional contexts — certain mutual savings banks, cooperative organizations, and some nonprofit or charitable corporations still use "corporator" as a formal designation for a class of members distinct from directors or officers. Researchers working with these entities should not assume the term is purely archaic.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition: a corporator is a member of a corporation aggregate. Black's (both editions) and Burrill's are terse and consistent. Bouvier adds the most substantive content by flagging the separateness of the corporator from the corporation and citing authority for that proposition — a point the other dictionaries omit entirely.
Rapalje & Lawrence, as it appears in the source material provided, does not address corporator directly and instead treats the adjacent topic of corporate classification, which is not useful for the term at hand.
None of the historical dictionaries adequately addresses how the term functions in non-stock, charitable, municipal, or quasi-corporate contexts, which were significant areas of 19th century corporate law. The Grant, Corp. 48 reference (cited by both Black's editions) points to Amasa Redfield's edition of Joseph Grant's treatise on corporations, a real and useful 19th century source for deeper treatment.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term has no significant jurisdictional variation in its basic definition. However, its survival as an active legal designation — rather than a historical artifact — varies by state. Certain New England states, particularly Massachusetts and New Hampshire, historically used "corporator" as a formal membership category in savings banks and charitable corporations, and some of that usage persists in state-specific statutory and institutional contexts.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Corporate Formation — Corporate Types (Close, Professional, Benefit Corporations), The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia
Corporate Formation — Corporate Purpose, Powers, and Ultra Vires Doctrine, The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia
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