Definition
A deed poll is a legal instrument executed by one party only, as distinguished from an indenture, which is executed by two or more parties. The term originally described the physical characteristic of the document: its edge was cut straight ("polled" or plain), whereas an indenture had a jagged or indented edge, the two halves of a single document being separated by that cut so that the matching edges could confirm authenticity.
Two related but distinct applications have developed:
1. Property conveyancing. In this context, a deed poll is a unilateral conveyance instrument — one in which only the grantor executes and binds themselves. The classic examples are deeds executed by sheriffs, executors, administrators, or trustees acting under legal authority rather than by private agreement. Because only one party acts, there is no counterpart instrument; the obligation or transfer flows in one direction.
2. Change of name. In English and Commonwealth practice particularly, a deed poll became the standard formal mechanism by which an individual declares and adopts a new name. The individual executes the document unilaterally, renouncing their former name and undertaking to use the new one. This usage follows naturally from the unilateral character of the instrument — no second party is needed to agree to one's own name change.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "A deed relating only to one party, distinguished from an indenture by having the edge of the paper cut evenly, or 'polled', rather than being indented. / A deed that effects a change of an individual's name."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A deed of one part, or executed by only one party, and distinguished from an indenture by having the edge of the parchment or paper cut even, or polled as it was anciently termed, instead of being indented."
The ordinary English understanding today — to the extent the term is known at all — almost exclusively conjures the name-change document. Researchers consulting American historical legal sources should be aware that in those sources the term overwhelmingly concerns property conveyancing, not name changes. The name-change usage is predominantly British and Commonwealth and is largely absent from American legal authority.
Common Confusion
Deed poll is frequently confused with indenture in historical sources because the substantive distinction (unilateral vs. bilateral) mattered more in practice than the physical edge-cutting formality, which eventually became a mere convention or was abandoned altogether. Bouvier notes that by the nineteenth century "the distinction between deed poll and indenture has come to be of but little importance." Researchers should not assume that the absence of the label "deed poll" in a historical instrument means the instrument was bilateral — and vice versa. Similarly, the name-change and conveyancing meanings should not be conflated; a researcher following citations in one context may find the other meaning in a different jurisdiction or era entirely.
Why It Matters in Research
The functional significance of the deed poll shifted across time and across the Atlantic. In early common law, the physical form of the document — polled edge versus indented edge — carried legal weight in identifying the nature of the transaction. By the mid-nineteenth century, that formal distinction had substantially collapsed in American practice, leaving the deed poll as a category defined by its unilateral character rather than its physical appearance.
In American property research, deed polls appear most frequently in instruments where one party acts under legal compulsion or authority rather than by contract: sheriff's deeds, executor's deeds, administrator's deeds, and trustee's deeds. These instruments appear throughout historical deed records and grantor-grantee indexes without always being labeled as deed polls. Researchers working in equity or estate records should be alert to the unilateral structure even where the label is absent.
In English and Commonwealth research, the name-change usage dominates from the nineteenth century forward and is enrolled at the Royal Courts of Justice or equivalent bodies. This usage has essentially no counterpart in American practice, where name changes proceed by court petition rather than by deed.
Researchers using American legal dictionaries to interpret English sources (or vice versa) risk missing the dominant meaning for their jurisdiction. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry offers no independent definition, directing readers to the general deed entry — a reminder that American practice had largely absorbed deed poll into ordinary deed terminology by the late nineteenth century.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four dictionary sources agree on the essential definition: a deed executed by one party, distinguished historically from an indenture by the straight-cut edge of the parchment. Burrill's provides the most complete formal treatment, noting the Latin and Law French equivalents (charta de una parte, factum simplex, fait polle) and preserving the clearest account of the physical distinction. Black's is characteristically concise and tracks Burrill's closely.
Bouvier adds the most practically significant observation: by the time of his writing, the distinction had largely lost importance, and the term's active use was confined mainly to instruments executed by parties acting in a representative legal capacity — sheriffs, executors, administrators, trustees. This is a meaningful narrowing that the other sources do not make explicit, and it better reflects how the term functions in American case law and practice records.
None of the American historical dictionaries addresses the name-change usage, which is consistent with that usage being primarily an English and Commonwealth development. Researchers relying solely on American historical dictionaries will therefore find an incomplete picture if their research touches English sources from the nineteenth century onward.
Jurisdictional Note
In the United States, the deed poll as a formal category has substantially merged with general deed practice; instruments by sheriffs and other legal representatives may or may not carry the label. In England and other Commonwealth jurisdictions, the deed poll as a name-change instrument remains a recognized legal procedure with enrollment procedures and prescribed form, a function entirely absent from American law.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia: property_55 — Mortgages: Promissory Note and Deed of Trust (for context on related unilateral deed instruments and the broader structure of property conveyancing documents).