Definition
In old conveyancing, *datus* (Latin, from *dare*, to give) denotes the date or act of giving as expressed in a formal legal instrument. The term appears primarily in two constructions: *dies datus*, meaning "the day of the date" — the date on which a deed or instrument was formally given or executed — and *cujus datus*, meaning "the giving of which was," a formula used to fix the time of delivery or execution of a document.
The concept reflects the classical understanding of a deed as something literally "given" — handed over — rather than merely signed or sealed. The date of a deed in early common law practice was not simply a calendrical notation but a legally operative act: the *datus* identified when the instrument passed from grantor to grantee and anchored the legal consequences that flowed from delivery.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The plural of *datu*, a traditional chieftain or leader among certain indigenous peoples of the Philippines and neighboring regions.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed as a common English word.
Editorial note: The Wiktionary entry for *datus* reflects an entirely unrelated term — the plural of *datu*, a title of authority in Southeast Asian cultures. A researcher encountering *datus* in an old English legal instrument should not confuse this with the indigenous political title. The two words are identical in spelling but wholly unrelated in origin, meaning, and context.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with pre-modern English deeds, conveyances, or pleading records will encounter *datus* and its compound forms — particularly *dies datus* — in Latin passages where the execution or delivery date of an instrument is being established. Several practical issues arise:
**Dating disputes in historical instruments.** Because delivery, not signing, completed a deed at common law, the *datus* could differ from the date written on the face of the instrument. When examining historical title chains or probate records involving old conveyances, a discrepancy between the written date and the operative *datus* could affect questions of priority, capacity, or validity.
**Pleading records.** *Dies datus* also appears in court records with a related but distinct procedural meaning: a day given (i.e., a continuance or adjournment granted by the court). Researchers must distinguish between the conveyancing use — fixing execution — and the procedural use — fixing a return date. Both appear in old reports and plea rolls under the same Latin phrase.
**Limited coverage in secondary sources.** Burrill is among the few English-language legal dictionaries to define *datus* directly. Most modern legal dictionaries omit it entirely. Researchers relying solely on Black's Law Dictionary or its successors will find no entry. The term is largely confined to Latin-language deed forms and early reports.
**Cross-corpus navigation.** When tracing the meaning of *datus* through Law Mind sources, the Encyclopedia entries on medieval conveyancing and dating clauses will provide the documentary context that dictionary entries alone cannot supply.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal English-language source for this term and provides the most useful synthesis. Burrill identifies *datus* as a term of old conveyancing, glosses it as "date or giving," and supplies two direct judicial references: Chief Justice Holt's translation of the term as "giving" in 12 Mod. 194, and the formula *cujus datus* from the same authority. The citation to 2 Salk. 413 anchors *dies datus* in reported English case law.
No other historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus appear to carry a dedicated entry for *datus*. The term's absence from Jacob's Law Dictionary and later nineteenth-century American dictionaries reflects its retreat from active legal usage — by the time American legal lexicography matured, Latin conveyancing formulas had largely been displaced by vernacular instruments.
What Burrill does not address is the procedural sense of *dies datus* as a court-granted continuance, a usage that appears frequently in medieval and early modern plea rolls and year books. Researchers should be alert to this gap.
Jurisdictional Note
*Datus* as a conveyancing term is exclusively a feature of English common law practice and the early American jurisdictions that inherited English deed forms. It has no independent significance in civil law or Louisiana practice, where different Latin formulas governed instrument dating.