Definition
Latin: "We have given and granted." A phrase used in formal legal instruments — particularly royal grants and charters — as the operative words of conveyance when the grantor was the king or when multiple grantors joined in the same instrument. It is the plural form of dedi et concessi ("I have given and granted"), adapted to reflect the plural voice of a sovereign acting on behalf of the Crown or of co-grantors acting together.
The phrase served the same substantive function as dedi et concessi in the singular: it signified the act of granting a right, privilege, or property with legal effect. Its significance lies less in any distinct legal doctrine and more in its status as a term of art in royal and ecclesiastical grants, where precise formulaic language was legally operative.
Common Confusion
Dedimus et concessimus is easily conflated with dedimus potestatem, a related but distinct Latin commission phrase. Dedimus potestatem ("we have given power") was a writ by which a court delegated authority to commissioners — for example, to take testimony, administer oaths, or receive the acknowledgment of a fine — rather than a phrase of conveyance. The two phrases share the verb dedimus but operate in entirely different legal contexts. Researchers encountering either phrase in historical records should confirm which instrument type they are reading before drawing conclusions about its legal function.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in pre-modern legal instruments — royal charters, feudal grants, and ecclesiastical conveyances — and in the opening language of Magna Carta itself. Researchers will encounter it primarily when working with:
— Medieval and early modern English land records, where formulaic operative words carried legal weight and variance from accepted forms could affect validity.
— Copies or commentaries on Magna Carta. The phrase appears in the charter's preamble: Sciatis quod nos dedimus et concessimus archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus... has libertates subscriptas — "Know ye, that we have given and granted to the archbishops, bishops, abbots... the liberties written below." Understanding the phrase is essential to reading the charter in its original Latin.
— Treatises from Blackstone's era and earlier, where conveyancing formulas are discussed with precision. Blackstone's Commentaries reference both the singular and plural forms in discussing grants and fines.
The main research trap is treating this as a general operative phrase interchangeable with modern grant language. In historical sources, the choice between dedi/dedimus and other verbs (such as concedo alone, or do et concedo) was meaningful and could signal the nature of the grant, the identity of the grantor, or the type of right being conveyed. Formularies and year books from the relevant period are often necessary to interpret the phrase in context.
For corpus researchers in Law Mind, this term connects the land conveyancing materials to the constitutional history materials — it is a thread running from feudal grant practice directly into the foundational document of English constitutional liberty.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition. Black's (both editions) and Burrill give identical translations and correctly identify the phrase as the plural of dedi et concessi, used when the king or multiple grantors are the conveying party. Burrill provides the most useful entry by quoting the Magna Carta preamble in full Latin with translation, anchoring the abstract definition in its most famous historical context.
Rapalje & Lawrence add a useful dimension: they connect the phrase to the procedural use of dedimus in fine-taking and equity practice, citing Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 351; 3 Id. 447). This bridges the conveyancing meaning with the commission meaning, though Rapalje & Lawrence's entry drifts — mid-sentence — into dedimus potestatem territory without clearly marking the transition. Researchers relying on that entry should read it carefully to distinguish the two phrases.
None of the historical dictionaries address the phrase's appearance in ecclesiastical grants or its use in non-English jurisdictions that inherited Roman-influenced conveyancing forms. That gap matters for researchers working with church records or Scottish and Irish materials from the same period.
Jurisdictional Note
This phrase is primarily a feature of English legal history and the common law tradition. It appears in Scottish and Irish instruments that followed English conveyancing conventions, and in early American colonial charters that reproduced royal grant formulas. It is not operative language in modern conveyancing in any jurisdiction.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Magna Carta — Constitutional History; Conveyancing — Historical Forms and Operative Words; Royal Grants and Charters.