Definition
A Latin attestation formula meaning "these being witnesses" or "these being the witnesses." It appeared in the closing clause of old English deeds and charters, immediately preceding the list of witnesses to the instrument. The full attestation clause typically concluded with the additional phrase et aliis ad hanc rem convocatis — "and others for this purpose assembled" — indicating that named witnesses were drawn from a larger group present at the execution. The formula served as the formal signal that the document had been duly witnessed, with the names of those witnesses following in sequence.
Common Confusion
Hiis testibus is sometimes loosely grouped with other Latin witness and attestation phrases such as testes and in witness whereof. The distinction matters in historical research: testes is the bare noun ("witnesses"), while hiis testibus is the full attestation clause formula, a term of art specific to the physical structure of old deed-closing protocol. In witness whereof is the later English-language successor that displaced hiis testibus in practice.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is nearly entirely a documentary artifact. Researchers will encounter it not in case reporters or modern treatises but in transcribed medieval and early modern deeds, charter rolls, monastic cartularies, conveyancing precedent books, and diplomatic editions of historical instruments. Its value is as a locating device within a document: when you see hiis testibus in a transcription, you have reached the attestation clause, and the names immediately following are the subscribing witnesses.
The formula had a defined lifespan. Bouvier's entry, though incomplete in the surviving source text, signals that the phrase fell out of use after the reign of Henry — understood in the conveyancing literature to be Henry VIII, reflecting the broader sixteenth-century shift toward English-language legal instruments and simplified attestation forms. Rapalje & Lawrence confirm the same obsolescence. Researchers working with documents dated after the mid-sixteenth century should not expect to find hiis testibus in use; its presence in a document is itself a rough dating signal pointing to pre-Tudor or early Tudor origin.
Because the phrase belongs to the diplomatic conventions of medieval English conveyancing, it also appears in Scottish, Irish, and Continental ecclesiastical instruments following similar Latin formulary traditions. Researchers should not assume that English conveyancing practice is the exclusive context; charter evidence from other jurisdictions using Roman-influenced Latin documentation may employ the same or closely parallel formulas.
For Law Mind corpus researchers, this term is most relevant when working through historical property records, land grants, ecclesiastical charters, or any transcribed deed predating the standardization of English-language conveyancing. Encountering it signals: (1) the document is likely pre-sixteenth century or modeled on pre-sixteenth century forms; (2) the attestation section is beginning; and (3) the names that follow are legally significant as witnesses to the instrument's execution.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence and Bouvier's are in close agreement on the meaning and historical function of the phrase. Both identify it as the standard attestation formula in old deeds and charters. Rapalje & Lawrence supply the more complete picture, preserving the tail end of the clause — et aliis ad hanc rem convocatis — which Bouvier's omits. This additional phrase is not trivial: it indicates that witnessing in early conveyancing practice was understood as a communal act, with named witnesses drawn from a broader assembled group, a feature that reflects the public and oral dimensions of early land transfer ceremonies.
Bouvier's entry is truncated in the available text, cutting off at the reference to Henry, but the implication is clear from conveyancing history: the phrase ceased to appear in standard practice as the use of English displaced Latin in legal instruments, a process largely complete by the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Neither source attempts to give the phrase a doctrinal dimension — correctly so. Hiis testibus is a formulary artifact, not a legal standard or rule. What historical dictionaries do not address is the phrase's broader diplomatic context: its use in papal bulls, royal charters, and ecclesiastical grants where the witnessing conventions had their own distinct protocols, some of which borrowed or paralleled the same formula.
Jurisdictional Note
The formula is associated primarily with English conveyancing practice but appears across medieval European Latin documentation. Researchers working with Scottish, Irish, or Continental sources using Latin deed forms should expect to encounter the same phrase or close variants. Its obsolescence timeline may differ slightly by jurisdiction and document type.