Definition
In legal instruments, GIVEN is a word of formal recitation used to indicate the date on which a deed, writ, or other legal document was executed or officially delivered. It appears most frequently in the dating clause of deeds and writs, as in the phrase "given under my hand and seal this [date]," where it functions as a synonym for delivered, issued, or made. The term imports the moment of formal legal act — the point at which the instrument takes effect — rather than mere physical preparation of the document.
In its secondary use, GIVEN appears as a recital word in pleadings and argument, meaning "stipulated" or "conceded for the sake of argument" — as in "given that the contract was formed, the question becomes one of breach." This is closer to its common logical usage and rarely creates interpretive difficulty in modern practice.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Considering; taking into account."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Granted; assumed; supposed to be known; set forth as a known quantity, relation, or premise. Stated; fixed; as, in a given time."
The gap between common and legal meaning is modest but worth noting for historical research. In ordinary usage, "given" is a logical or rhetorical concession — something assumed for the purpose of argument. In older legal instruments, "given" is not a logical concession but a performative word of execution: it marks the moment a legal act occurred and carries evidentiary weight in dating disputes. A researcher reading a historical deed who treats "given" as merely rhetorical risks misreading the dating clause entirely.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research significance of GIVEN lies in the dating clause of historical instruments. In older deeds and royal writs, the formula "given at [place] on [date]" — drawn from the Latin datum — was the operative language establishing when the document was issued or took legal effect. This matters for:
**Chain of title disputes.** When priority between instruments turns on date of execution versus date of recording, the "given" date in the body of a deed may differ from a notarial acknowledgment date or a recording date. Researchers working in pre-recording-act property law must understand which date controls under the applicable rule.
**Writ dating and return days.** In common law pleading, writs were "given" (issued) on specific days tied to the court calendar. The given date established the timeline for returns, defaults, and procedural deadlines. Errors in transcription or dating of writs in historical court records can create apparent gaps or anachronisms that are artifacts of copying, not evidence of procedural defect.
**Latin and French antecedents in corpus materials.** Burrill notes that GIVEN derives from the Latin datum and the French donné, and was anciently written yeoven or yeuen in English sources. Researchers encountering these archaic spellings in manuscript deeds, plea rolls, or early printed abridgments should recognize them as functional equivalents of "given" and treat them accordingly. A search for the modern form alone will miss earlier instances.
**The distinction from delivery.** In deed law, a document could be "given" (executed and dated) before it was legally "delivered" to take effect. The given date and the delivery date were sometimes different. This distinction is legally significant under traditional deed doctrine and can affect when a conveyance became operative.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides a compact but useful entry, noting the Latin (datum) and French (donné) origins and flagging the archaic English spellings yeoven and yeuen. This is the essential cross-reference for corpus researchers: the orthographic variation is significant for manuscript research and early printed legal materials where standardized spelling had not yet stabilized. Burrill does not elaborate on the substantive legal function of the term in dating clauses, treating it primarily as a word-form entry rather than a doctrinal one.
No other shelf sources in the current corpus expand substantially on GIVEN as an independent entry. The term's legal significance is better developed in the broader literature on deed formalities and writ practice than in dictionary treatment alone. The historical dictionaries are adequate for identifying the term and its linguistic variants but should be supplemented with treatises on conveyancing for substantive analysis.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Deeds and Conveyancing (for the role of dating clauses and delivery doctrine); Date of Instrument (for priority rules and the legal significance of execution dates).
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