Definition
In historical legal usage, "doubles" refers to letters-patent — official documents issued under governmental authority, typically bearing a seal, that conveyed grants, rights, or privileges. The term appears in early legal writing as a synonym or near-synonym for such instruments, likely reflecting the physical form of the document (folded or issued in duplicate).
The term carries no significant independent meaning in modern legal practice and is not a term of art in contemporary law. Its appearance in legal sources is almost entirely confined to older English legal writing and glossaries drawing on Cowell's legal dictionary tradition.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "double" — used across many ordinary contexts, including sports (a hit in baseball, a game format in tennis), music, film (a body double), and arithmetic (twice a quantity).
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately entered; "doubles" follows from "double," which Webster's defines broadly as something twofold, a duplicate, or a counterpart.
Editorial note: The gap here is narrow but real. The common-language sense of "doubles" as a duplicate or counterpart is what connects the word to its legal usage — letters-patent were sometimes issued in duplicate form, with one copy retained and one delivered, making "doubles" a natural descriptor for such instruments. Researchers should not import any modern sporting or general sense of the word into historical legal contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational challenge precisely because of its obscurity. Researchers encountering "doubles" in historical legal manuscripts, case notes, or early treatises will find almost no guidance in modern sources. The connection to letters-patent is the essential key: if you encounter "doubles" in an archaic English legal document, redirect your research to the law of patents of grant, royal charters, and letters-patent rather than treating the word as a common English plural.
The source material traces the term through Cowell — John Cowell's Interpreter (1607) — which was a primary reference for early Black's editions. This means the definition arrived in American legal dictionaries as received English legal vocabulary, not as a term developed through American practice or case law. It should not be assumed to have had independent circulation in early American legal usage.
Researchers using the Law Mind corpus should also note that "doubles" in the context of the source fragment — "he is said to commit double waste" (Co. Litt. 53) — is almost certainly a separate usage entirely, referring to committing waste in two respects or to an aggravated form of waste, not to letters-patent. The juxtaposition of these fragments in the source material is an artifact of dictionary organization, not a conceptual connection. Do not conflate the two uses.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary (1st Ed.) and Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) define "doubles" identically: "Letters-patent. Cowell." This verbatim agreement across editions signals that the editors of Black's second edition did not independently develop or verify the definition — they carried forward Cowell's gloss without revision or expansion.
The source entry attributing the definition to Cowell points to the Interpreter, a glossary of legal and ecclesiastical terms that was influential but also controversial in its time (it was suppressed by order of Parliament in 1610 for certain entries). Researchers relying on Cowell-derived definitions should treat them as reflecting one tradition of English legal vocabulary rather than settled common-law usage.
What the historical dictionaries miss: neither edition of Black's provides any context for when, where, or how "doubles" was used to mean letters-patent, how widely the usage was understood, or whether it reflected a formal legal category or informal scribal shorthand. The Cowell citation substitutes for explanation rather than supporting it.
Jurisdictional Note
This term has no meaningful jurisdictional variation in modern law. Its relevance is confined to historical English legal materials. Researchers working in early American colonial records may encounter it if those records drew on English chancery or patent practice, but it is not a term that developed distinct American legal meaning.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Although "doubles" as letters-patent is historically remote from constitutional double jeopardy doctrine, researchers arriving at this entry after searching the term "doubles" in a legal context may be seeking material on Double Jeopardy. See:
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Double Jeopardy: Attachment and Scope (criminal_170)
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Double Jeopardy: Same Offense Test (Blockburger) (criminal_171)
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Double Jeopardy: Dual Sovereignty Doctrine (criminal_172)