Definition
De allocatione facienda (Latin: "for making allowance") is a historical writ of the English exchequer system directed to the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer. It commanded that an allowance or credit be made to collectors of customs, revenue officers, or other officials who held or managed the king's money, reimbursing them for sums they had lawfully disbursed in the course of their duties. The writ served as a formal mechanism for settling accounts between the Crown and its financial officers — authorizing the Exchequer to credit an officer's account rather than hold him personally liable for expenditures already made on behalf of the Crown.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow, archaic exchequer writ with no modern procedural counterpart. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-nineteenth-century English legal materials — exchequer records, plea rolls, and treatises on Crown revenue practice. It belongs to a family of exchequer writs (see also: allocatur, allocatione facienda) that governed the internal accounting relationship between the Crown and its fiscal agents.
The key research trap is confusion between the writ itself and the underlying concept of allowance or allocatur. De allocatione facienda was the initiating writ that compelled the Exchequer to act; allocatur was the notation confirming that the allowance had been made. Sources sometimes use these terms interchangeably or imprecisely, which can obscure whether a given document reflects a demand for relief or a grant of it.
Rapalje & Lawrence redirect readers to the entry for ALLOCATIONE FACIENDA, indicating the term was treated as a variant form rather than a wholly distinct writ. Researchers working in American legal sources from the colonial or early federal period are unlikely to encounter this writ in active use; it is strictly an artifact of English exchequer practice and relevant primarily to comparative legal history or the history of government accounting.
For corpus researchers, this term signals proximity to materials dealing with Crown revenue, customs administration, and the jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer. Its appearance in a document is a strong indicator that the surrounding text concerns the financial accountability of royal or government officers, not private parties.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's definition is brief but sufficient: the writ ran to the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, covered sums disbursed by customs collectors and similar officers, and functioned as an instrument of reimbursement or credit within the exchequer accounting system. Rapalje & Lawrence offer no independent definition, instead cross-referencing the companion form, which confirms that nineteenth-century American legal lexicographers treated this as a term of historical English practice requiring no original gloss.
Neither dictionary situates the writ within the broader architecture of exchequer procedure or distinguishes it from closely related writs. Researchers needing deeper context should consult treatises on the Court of Exchequer and its jurisdiction over Crown revenue matters, where the practical operation of such allowance writs is more fully explained. Historical sources are consistent in their treatment but uniformly thin — this is a term that appears in dictionaries because completeness demanded it, not because practitioners were regularly consulting definitions.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is exclusively a product of English exchequer jurisdiction and has no recognized equivalent in American federal or state practice. It is relevant to legal historical research involving England and Wales prior to the nineteenth-century consolidation of exchequer procedure.