Definition
His testibus is a Latin attestation formula meaning "these being witnesses" or "these being the witnesses." It appeared at the close of old deeds, charters, and formal instruments as the clause introducing the names of the subscribing witnesses. The phrase functioned as the formal declaration that the named individuals were present and attesting to the execution of the document.
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Common Confusion
His testibus is sometimes loosely grouped with other closing clauses in historical instruments — such as the *in cujus rei testimonium* ("in witness whereof") clause — but they are not interchangeable. His testibus specifically introduces the witness list; it is a testimonial attestation formula, not a seal or signature clause. Researchers encountering either phrase in old deeds should treat them as distinct structural components of the instrument.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively a relic of medieval and early modern conveyancing practice. Researchers will encounter it in original charters, royal grants, ecclesiastical records, land deeds, and formal instruments from the pre-modern English legal tradition and its colonial offshoots. By the time American legal practice was codified in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, his testibus had largely given way to anglicized attestation formulas such as "In witness whereof" or "Signed in the presence of." Its appearance in a document is itself a dating signal: instruments using this formula typically predate standardized printed deed forms.
Several practical traps deserve attention:
First, the phrase marks where witness names begin. In transcribing or abstracting old deeds, researchers must not mistake his testibus for part of the substantive granting language. Everything following it is attestation, not operative conveyance.
Second, the witnesses listed after his testibus may be the only individuals named in the document other than the grantor and grantee, making their identification valuable for genealogical, social, and legal-historical research.
Third, his testibus is distinct from the sealing clause and the consideration recital. A well-structured medieval deed had each of these as separate formal components, and conflating them produces errors in document analysis.
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should note that this term will appear primarily in historical document transcriptions, treatises on conveyancing, and discussions of old English deed forms — not in modern statutory or case law materials.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary consulted here give identical, minimal treatment: "These being witnesses. The attestation clause in old deeds and charters." The entries are accurate as far as they go but offer nothing beyond the bare translation and functional identification. Neither edition addresses the clause's structural position within the instrument, its relationship to other closing formulas, or the period of its active use — gaps a researcher working with original historical documents will feel immediately.
Historical legal dictionaries are generally consistent in treating his testibus as a fixed formula with a fixed meaning. There is no meaningful divergence among sources on what the phrase denotes. The absence of elaboration in the secondary literature reflects the term's relatively uncomplicated function: it is a formulaic marker, not a contested legal concept.
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Jurisdictional Note
His testibus belongs to the shared inheritance of English common law conveyancing and appears across jurisdictions that derived their deed-drafting practices from that tradition, including the American colonies and early states. It has no modern jurisdictional variation because it is no longer in active use in any jurisdiction's standard practice.
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