Definition
Dup is an archaic writ of English common law, classified among the real actions, and used in connection with proceedings related to dower or compurgation. The term appears in early English legal practice as an abbreviated or alternative designation within the system of original writs, particularly as referenced alongside the writ of dower and the procedure of wager of law (compurgation). It is not a term of active modern legal significance and survives only in historical legal literature and abridgments of the old common law forms of action.
The writ and its associated procedure were abolished along with the broader system of real actions, a reform substantially completed in England by the nineteenth century. Any researcher encountering "dup" in primary legal sources will almost certainly be working with pre-reform English common law materials.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To open a door, gate, or similar barrier. Archaic or dialectal English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "To open; as, to dup the door." Marked as obsolete. Attributed to Shakespeare.
The common word "dup" (to open) and the legal term appear to share archaic English roots but function in entirely different registers. The legal usage has no meaningful connection to the act of opening a door; the appearance of the word in legal sources signals a specific writ or procedural form, not any reference to the common-language meaning. Researchers should not allow the Shakespearean or dialect sense to create interpretive confusion when the term appears in a pleading register or writ collection.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in early English legal history — particularly in the Year Books, Registers of Original Writs, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, or Reeves' History of English Law — may encounter "dup" embedded within discussions of dower proceedings or compurgation. The Burrill entry situates the term in a cluster of closely related sources: Reg. Orig. 228b, F.N.B. 202, Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 291 and 3 Bl. Com. 343), and Reeves' History, as well as Termes de la Ley and Roscoe's Real Actions. This cluster is a reliable map of where the term lives in the historical corpus.
The reference to compurgation ("il covint aver oue luy xi maynz de jurer oue luy" — it behooves to have with him eleven hands to swear with him) links dup to the wager of law procedure, in which a defendant would bring a set number of oath-helpers (compurgators) to swear to his denial. The phrase from Dyversite des Courts explains that "hands" referred to the physical gesture of oath-taking. This procedural context is essential: dup is not merely a label for a writ, but a marker of an entire evidentiary and procedural world that has no modern counterpart.
Abolition: The writ was abolished as part of the general reform of real actions. Burrill's own cross-reference to 3 Bl. Com. 343 flags this. Researchers must treat all substantive discussions of dup as applying exclusively to historical English law. It has no continuing force in any modern common law jurisdiction.
Corpus trap: Because the term is so rare and abbreviated, full-text searches may miss it or conflate it with other abbreviations. Check variant spellings and consult the writ registers directly when working with manuscript or early printed sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical legal dictionary source for this term, and its entry is dense with cross-references rather than substantive definition — a signal that "dup" was a term of art understood primarily by its placement within the writ system rather than by any self-contained meaning. Burrill points researchers outward to Fitzherbert, Blackstone, Reeves, Termes de la Ley, and Roscoe rather than defining the writ's content at length. The French-law quotation embedded in the entry ("il covint aver oue luy xi maynz de jurer oue luy") suggests the term's roots in Anglo-Norman legal procedure.
No other major historical legal dictionaries (Jacob, Tomlin, Black's early editions) appear to carry a substantial independent entry for dup, which reinforces its character as a specialist term confined to the literature of real actions and compurgation. Modern legal dictionaries omit it entirely.
Jurisdictional Note
Dup is purely a historical English common law term. It has no recognized legal meaning or procedural relevance in any modern jurisdiction, including those with common law heritage such as the United States, Canada, or Australia. Its appearance in any post-nineteenth-century legal text would be antiquarian rather than operative.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Compurgation (Wager of Law); Real Actions; Writ of Dower.