DEDIT ET CONCESSIT

Definition

Latin phrase meaning "he gave and granted." A formal operative phrase used in ancient deeds and charters of feoffment to effect the conveyance of land or other property from grantor to grantee. The phrase appeared as the legal engine of the instrument — the words that performed the transfer itself — and was typically embedded in a standardized Latin formula identifying the parties, the subject matter, and the nature of the conveyance. The full conventional formula ran: Hæc indentura, facta inter [grantor] ex una parte, et [grantee] ex altera parte, testatur quod prædictus [grantor] dedit et concessit, et hac præsenti carta indentata confirmavit præfato [grantee] talem terram — rendered in English as: "This indenture, made between [grantor] of the one part, and [grantee] of the other part, witnesseth that the said [grantor] hath given and granted, and by this present indenture confirmed unto the said [grantee] such land." The pairing of dedit (gave) and concessit (granted) was not redundant — it tracked a distinction between the act of present transfer and the formal legal recognition of that grant, reinforcing the completeness of the conveyance.

Why It Matters in Research

This is a term of historical drafting art, not living doctrine. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in the context of medieval and early modern English land law — period charters, feoffments, and indentures — and in treatises and form books that reproduced or analyzed those instruments. It does not appear in modern conveyancing practice, where plain-English equivalents ("grants and conveys," "bargains and sells") displaced Latin operative words centuries ago. The research traps here are two. First, the phrase marks the type of instrument: dedit et concessit is associated specifically with indentures and deeds of grant, not with simple feoffments by livery of seisin alone (which required no written words to be operative at common law) and not with other conveyancing forms like bargain and sale or lease and release. Seeing this phrase in a historical document is a reliable signal that the instrument was an indenture — with all the legal consequences that followed from that form, including the ability of either party to bring an action on the deed. Second, corpus researchers working in plea rolls, early chancery records, or printed form collections should recognize that the verb forms shift depending on grammatical context: dedit et concessit appears in narrative recitations (he gave and granted), while the imperative or future-facing forms appear in different instruments. Conflating these can distort reconstruction of conveyancing history. The phrase also matters for understanding what "operative words" meant in classical common law conveyancing theory. Treatise writers — Littleton, Coke, later Blackstone — treated operative words as the legal heart of a deed, carrying the weight of the transfer. DEDIT ET CONCESSIT is the paradigm case of that concept in grant-form instruments.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the essential framework: the phrase is identified as operative words in ancient charters of feoffment and deeds of grant specifically where the conveyance was by indenture, and Burrill reproduces the full Latin formula with enough context to reconstruct the standard instrument structure. This is more practically useful than a bare translation because it situates the phrase within its documentary form. What Burrill does not address — and what historical sources generally elide — is the doctrinal question of whether dedit or concessit alone would have been sufficient, or whether the pairing was required. Classical common law held that a grant required words of grant (concessit or its English equivalent) for incorporeal hereditaments, while corporeal things could pass by livery without written words at all. The doubled phrase may reflect cautious drafting practice as much as strict legal necessity. Researchers needing to press this question will need to move beyond dictionary sources to Coke on Littleton and early conveyancing manuals.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Feoffment; Operative Words in Deeds; Common Law Conveyancing Forms ___

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