ESCROVET - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

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Definition

Escrovet is an archaic Law French term meaning a scroll or writing — specifically, a document in the form of a written instrument that has not yet achieved the legal status of a fully executed deed. The term belongs to the same etymological and conceptual family as escrow and escrowe, all deriving from the notion of a "scroll" or "scrowl" (a rolled or folded writing). In early common law usage, escrovet denoted a mere writing, distinguished from a perfected deed by the absence of some condition, formality, or delivery required to give it full legal effect.

The term is encountered almost exclusively in historical legal sources and is not used in modern practice. Its primary value today is as a key to understanding the early conceptual architecture of escrow doctrine: the idea that a writing held in an intermediate state — executed but not yet operative — occupied a distinct legal category.

Common Confusion

Escrovet, escrowe, and escrow are variants of the same root concept and are frequently run together in historical sources without clear differentiation. Burrill treats them as a cluster, with escrovet appearing as an alternative or possibly corrupt form of the term. Researchers should not treat these as distinct legal concepts. The modern doctrine of escrow descends directly from escrowe; escrovet is best understood as a scribal or dialectal variant rather than a separate institution. Kelham's glossary renders the same term as escrover, compounding the orthographic confusion typical of Law French materials.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in early common law sources — Britton, Littleton, and their commentators — will encounter escrovet and its variants in contexts that illuminate the prehistory of escrow doctrine. Several research traps are worth flagging:

Orthographic instability is severe. Law French was never standardized, and the same concept appears as escrovet, escrowe, escrover, escrowl, and scrole across manuscripts and printed editions. A search limited to any single spelling will miss parallel passages. Cross-referencing Kelham's glossary alongside Burrill is advisable.

The term marks a conceptual threshold. The distinction between a "mere writing" (escrovet) and a "perfect deed" was not merely formal — it carried real consequences for delivery, condition, and enforceability. Understanding this boundary is essential for tracing how escrow evolved from a descriptive label for an incomplete instrument into a transactional device with defined third-party mechanics.

Burrill's cluster entry (ESCROW, Escrowe, Escrovet) signals that these terms should be researched together. The Florida Reports citation (4 Fla. R. 374) and the Meeson & Welsby citation (11 M. & W. 145) in Burrill's entry provide anchoring points for the doctrine in nineteenth-century American and English caselaw, even though escrovet itself does not appear in those cases — Burrill uses them to contextualize the broader escrow entry.

Littleton's Tenures (sect. 246) is the primary source Burrill cites for escrovet. Researchers tracing the term to its earliest English legal usage should begin there, bearing in mind that Coke's commentary on Littleton substantially shaped how later lawyers read these passages.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal authority for this term in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill treats escrovet as a Law French form meaning "scroll," noting with appropriate caution that "perhaps this should be escrovel" — acknowledging that the spelling in the sources may itself be a corruption. Kelham's rendering as escrover adds a third variant, illustrating that even specialized glossarists disagreed on the correct form.

Burrill's broader cluster entry is useful precisely because it does not over-separate the variants. He roots all of them in the core meaning: a writing distinguished from a deed by its incomplete or conditional status. This framing aligns with the general treatment in Tomlin's Law Dictionary and Jacob's Law Dictionary, which define escrow primarily through the delivery-and-condition mechanism without dwelling on the earlier scroll terminology.

What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is any sustained treatment of how the term functioned procedurally in early pleading or conveyancing practice. The sources confirm the meaning but do not explain when a court would have characterized an instrument as an escrovet rather than a deed, leaving that question to be reconstructed from case materials.

Jurisdictional Note

Escrovet as a term has no jurisdictional variation — it is a historical artifact, not a term in active use in any jurisdiction. The underlying doctrine it represents, escrow, varies significantly across American jurisdictions in its requirements and consequences, but those variations attach to the modern term, not to escrovet.

ESCROVETmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

L. Fr. A scroll. Litt. sect. 246. Perhaps this should be escrovel. Kelham has escrover. ESCROW, Escrowe, Escrovet. L. Fr. and Eng. A scroll, (scrowl, scrole, escrowl) or writing; (Lat. scriptum, schedula ;) a mere writing, as distinguished from a perfect deed.* * R. 145. And see 4 Florida R. 374. 11 M. & W. 145. **Escrowe occurs in very nearly its modern form, in the law French of Britton, but in Littleton's time was written escrovet, (q. v.); both words being used by these authors, in describing the manner of partitioning an inheritance among co-parceners. Thus, Britton observes, that after partition made, "the parcels should be entered and specified in several scrolls or escrows, (en plúsurs escrowes,) and these escrowes should be delivered to a layman who knows nothing of letters, and he shall deliver to each parcener an escrow (un escrowe). And according to the lot of the escrows, (that is, according as they happen to be thus distributed,) each parcener shall hold for her share." Britt. c. 71. Littleton describes the mode of drawing the lots thus: "After the partition of the lands made, each part of the land shall be written alone by itself, in a little scroll, (en un petit escrovet,) and shall be covered all over in wax, in the manner of a little ball, (d'un petit pile,) so that no one can see the scroll, and then the four balls of wax shall be put into a hat to be kept in the hands of an indifferent man," and then the eldest daughter drew first, &c. Litt. sect. 246. Escrowe seems properly to mean something more than a mere writing, (that being denoted by the Fr. escript, which, however, escrovet somewhat resembles). The radical idea appears to be, a writing the contents of which are temporarily kept out of view, as by being put in a third hand, by rolling up, enclosing in wax, &c. It will be seen from the foregoing extracts, that the distinctive modern feature of an escrow, viz. its being held in the hands of a third person, has belonged to it from the earliest times. Britt. c. 71. Litt. sect. 246. A deed, (and the term includes a bond,) delivered to a third person to hold or keep, until some act is done or condition performed, and then to be delivered to the grantee or obligee, when it takes effect, and becomes a deed to all intents and purposes. 2 Bl. Com. 307. Co. Litt. 36. Termes de la Ley. 1 Steph. Com. 459, note (k), and cases ibid. 4 Kent's Com. 454. Hob. 246. 5 Cranch's R. 351. Until the condition be performed, and the deed delivered over, the estate does not pass, but remains in the grantor. 4 Kent's Com. 454. Generally, an escrow takes effect from the second delivery, and is to be considered the deed of the party from that time. In cases, however, where it becomes necessary for the purposes of justice, there is a relation back to the first delivery, so as to give the deed effect from ESCUAGE. L. Fr. [from escu, a shield; that time. Id. ibid. Smith on Contracts, L. Lat. scutagium, q. v.] In old English 10, 11, and note. An instrument cannot law. A species of military or knightbe an escrow, if delivered to the party service; (service of the shield;) or rather himself; the delivery must be to a stranger. an incident to the tenure by knight-service. 8 Richardson's R. 325. 1 Selden's R. 229. Litt. sect. 95. Co. Litt. 68 b.

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