Definition
A cursitor was a junior clerical officer of the English Court of Chancery responsible for drafting and issuing original writs. These writs — called writs de cursu, meaning writs "of course" — were standard, formulaic instruments that issued as a matter of routine rather than by special judicial direction. The cursitors did not exercise discretion; their function was mechanical and administrative, producing writs according to established forms kept in the register.
The cursitors constituted a corporate body, with each clerk assigned a designated number of counties whose writs fell within his jurisdiction. The office was of considerable antiquity, traceable at minimum to the reign of Edward III, and the officers were formerly known by the Latin designation clerici de secunda forma — clerks of the second grade — reflecting their subordinate standing within the chancery hierarchy.
The office of cursitor was abolished in England in the nineteenth century as part of broader reforms to the chancery courts. By the time of most American legal practice, the role had no domestic counterpart.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A courier or runner; or, a clerk in the Court of Chancery whose business is to make out original writs.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A courier or runner. [Obs.]" Also defined as an officer in the Court of Chancery making out original writs.
The older common meaning — courier or runner — is entirely distinct from the legal office and had already become obsolete by the nineteenth century. A researcher encountering "cursitor" in a legal source should not import the courier sense. Conversely, the Webster's entry collapses the distinction between a courier and a chancery officer into a single entry, which can mislead readers who encounter the word in a non-legal historical text.
Why It Matters in Research
Cursitor is an extinct office term that researchers will encounter almost exclusively in historical English legal materials, particularly records and treatises relating to the Court of Chancery before its nineteenth-century reform. Several points deserve attention:
First, the term appears in two forms in historical sources — as "cursitor" and in its Latin form "clericus de cursu" or the longer "clericus de secunda forma." A corpus search limited to the English term will miss Latin-language records and some early treatises that use the Latin exclusively.
Second, the corporate structure of the cursitors matters for archival research. Because each cursitor was responsible for specific counties, records of original writs may be scattered across office-specific files rather than organized by county or by writ type. Knowing which counties fell within a given cursitor's charge can be essential for locating particular instruments.
Third, do not conflate writs de cursu (writs of course, drafted by cursitors) with writs issued on special application or by judicial order. The distinction was procedurally significant: writs de cursu required no prior showing and were available as of right, while other writs required judicial intervention. This difference appears throughout chancery commentary and determines which clerical track a writ followed.
Fourth, the abolition of the cursitors in England means that American legal dictionaries of the founding and early republic period often describe the office in the present tense (as an active English institution) while it had no American parallel. Researchers using American sources that describe cursitors should treat those descriptions as accounts of English practice, not American procedure.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier and Burrill agree on the core function — drafting original writs as a matter of course — and both trace the office to the reign of Edward III. Their accounts are complementary rather than conflicting.
Burrill provides the more complete terminological history, giving both the Latin names (clericus de cursu, clerici de secunda forma) and the statutory reference to 18 Edward III, and citing Crabb's History of English Law for the historical account. This makes Burrill the more useful starting point for a researcher tracing the office through primary sources.
Bouvier adds the detail about corporate structure — that the cursitors formed a corporation with each clerk assigned specific counties — and cites Pollock and Maitland's History of English Law. This structural detail is absent from Burrill and is practically important for archival navigation.
Neither dictionary addresses the abolition of the office or its relationship to the Chancery reforms of the 1830s and beyond, which is the critical terminus for any research timeline involving the cursitors. Researchers relying solely on these dictionary entries may not realize the office had ceased to exist by the time many American legal encyclopedias were written.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Court of Chancery; Original Writs; Writs De Cursu