Definition
An escript is a written instrument or document — any writing reduced to a fixed, tangible form. The term is archaic and appears almost exclusively in historical legal sources. It encompasses deeds, contracts, memoranda, and other writings that carry legal significance by virtue of their written form.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A writing.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A writing. [Obs.]
Both common and legal dictionaries treat this term as essentially equivalent in meaning. The word is marked obsolete in Webster's 1913, and its appearance in legal sources is similarly vestigial. No meaningful gap exists between the common and legal senses — the term simply fell out of active use in both registers.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering escript in historical legal materials should treat it as a functional synonym for "writing" or "written instrument" without reading specialized technical content into the word itself. Its significance is contextual: the legal weight of an escript depends entirely on what kind of document it describes — deed, contract, will, bond — not on the label itself.
The primary research trap is assuming the term carries a precise technical meaning it does not possess. Unlike instrument or deed, escript was a general descriptor. A document called an escript in a historical pleading or treatise is simply being identified as a writing; its legal character must be determined from surrounding context.
Researchers working in older equity pleadings, early common law records, or continental-influenced legal traditions (where cognate terms appear in French and Latin legal writing) may encounter escript or its variants. The term's French lineage (from écriture/escriture) means it appears with greater frequency in sources influenced by Norman or civil law practice. Historical Louisiana materials and early Canadian legal records are likelier environments than early English common law.
The term does not appear in modern statutory or case law in active use. Any modern appearance is almost certainly quotation from or reference to an older source.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is minimal: "Writing; a writing; a written instrument." This three-part gloss offers no technical refinement — Bouvier treats escript as a plain descriptor, not a term of art. The entry's brevity is itself informative: a term warranting only a single line in Bouvier's otherwise expansive dictionary carries no doctrinal freight of its own.
Webster's 1913 confirms the obsolescence of the term in ordinary usage by the time of that edition, further supporting the conclusion that escript had retreated from active legal vocabulary by the late nineteenth century. There is no divergence between the historical dictionary sources — both treat the term identically, and neither assigns it a specialized legal function.
What the historical sources do not address is the term's civil law and French-language context, where cognate forms remained in somewhat longer use. Researchers relying solely on Bouvier for this term should supplement with civil law glossaries if working in jurisdictions with mixed legal heritage.
Jurisdictional Note
No modern U.S. jurisdiction uses escript as a term of art. Researchers working in Quebec, Louisiana, or other mixed civil-common law systems may encounter the term or close cognates (escriture, escritura) in historical sources with greater frequency than in purely common law jurisdictions.