Definition
A writ directing the admission of a guardian. The phrase is Latin for "for admitting a guardian" (de, concerning or for; custode, guardian or keeper; admittendo, admitting). The writ functioned as a formal command in English common law procedure, directing a competent authority — typically a court or officer — to admit or install a person as guardian over another, most commonly a minor or a person otherwise legally incapable of managing their own affairs. Like other writs of its class, it operated as a procedural instrument rather than a substantive determination of who ought to serve as guardian; the underlying fitness or appointment had already been decided elsewhere in the legal process. The writ gave that determination official effect by compelling formal admission to the office.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a historical writ form with no surviving procedural counterpart in modern American or English law. Researchers encountering the term will find it almost exclusively in pre-nineteenth century English common law materials, including the Register of Writs (Registrum Omnium Brevium), which both editions of Black's cite as authority. The Register of Writs was a standard reference for chancery clerks and practitioners and its page references in Black's (93b, 198) provide the primary documentary anchor for this writ.
The writ belongs to a family of custodianship and guardianship writs that operated in parallel — admitting guardians, removing them, and accounting for their conduct. Researchers should not assume this writ covers the full appointment process; it marks only the admission stage. Earlier steps in guardianship — the determination of wardship, the selection of a guardian, the surety bond — would each have their own procedural vehicles.
In corpus research, the inconsistency between the two Black's editions is minor but worth noting: the first edition cites "Reg. Orig. 936, 198" while the second edition adjusts this to "Reg. Orig. 93), 198" — almost certainly a typographical artifact in the second edition's typesetting, not a substantive difference in authority. Both refer to the same source.
Researchers working on English Chancery practice, wardship in medieval or early modern law, or the development of guardianship doctrine will find this writ a useful procedural data point. It signals how common law formalized guardianship transitions through writ process rather than through purely judicial order.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's give identical substance — "writ for admitting a guardian" — with the same Register of Writs citations. There is no divergence in meaning between the two editions. Neither edition elaborates on the procedural context, the issuing authority, or the relationship of this writ to companion writs (such as those for removing a guardian or requiring a guardian's account). The entries are telegraphic even by the compressed standards of historical legal dictionaries, reflecting that the writ was already a relic of earlier practice by the time Black's was compiled in the late nineteenth century. Historical dictionaries of greater vintage — Rastell, Cowell, Blount, or Jacob — might offer richer procedural context for researchers who need more than nomenclature.