Definition
A Latin term from medieval English legal practice meaning to write or place something on the back of a document. Derived from the Latin *in* (on) and *dorsum* (the back), the word denotes the physical act of marking the reverse side of a legal instrument, most commonly a writ. In practice, this meant recording required information — such as the date of an arrest or other procedural fact — on the back of the writ to which it related.
Common Confusion
INDORSARE should not be confused with the modern commercial law term INDORSEMENT (or ENDORSEMENT), though they share the same root. Indorsare is a procedural term from medieval English writ practice, referring specifically to the act of writing on the back of a court document. Modern indorsement, by contrast, has evolved primarily into a commercial instrument concept — the signature or marking on the back of a negotiable instrument transferring rights. The words are genealogically identical but functionally distinct; researchers encountering indorsare in historical sources should resist reading commercial law meaning into the term.
Why It Matters in Research
Indorsare appears almost exclusively in Latin-language medieval English legal records, Year Books, and the foundational treatises — Bracton, Fleta, and the Registrum Omnium Brevium (Reg. Orig.). Researchers working in these sources need to recognize the term as procedural rather than commercial. In writ practice, the indorsement of the day of taking (*dies captionis*) was a formal requirement, not a mere administrative note; failure to comply could affect the validity of proceedings. This procedural significance means the term carries legal weight in contexts where it appears, and its presence in a record may signal compliance or non-compliance with required writ formalities.
The conjugated forms matter for corpus navigation. Burrill records three distinct forms in use: *indorsare* (infinitive), *indorsavit* (past tense, "he indorsed"), and *indorsatum* (past participle, "indorsed"). Searches limited to the infinitive form alone will miss the majority of actual usage in primary sources, where inflected forms predominate. Researchers should run parallel searches on all three variants when working in Latin legal records.
The term bridges into the broader vocabulary of writ administration. Cross-referencing entries on *brevia* (writs), *capias*, and exchequer procedure (as reflected in the *Mem. in Scacc.* citation) will provide the procedural context in which indorsare operated.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical dictionary source for this entry, and its treatment is concise but well-sourced. Burrill traces the term etymologically, defines it plainly as "to put or write on the back," and supports the definition with specific references to Bracton (fol. 365 b), the Registrum Originale, a 1708 King's Bench report (7 Mod. 86), a Memoranda Roll entry from 26 Edward I, and Fleta (lib. 6, c. 6, § 19). The spread of citations — from Bracton and Fleta in the thirteenth century through the early eighteenth-century reports — confirms that the term had continuous Latin usage across several centuries of English legal practice before the vernacular "indorsed" fully displaced it.
No other major historical law dictionaries (Bouvier, Black, Tomlin) treat indorsare as a distinct headword, likely because by the time those dictionaries were compiled, Latin writ terminology had largely retreated from active practice. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as the principal reference and consult the primary sources Burrill cites directly for contextual usage.
Jurisdictional Note
Indorsare is a term of English legal history with no independent reception in American or other common law jurisdictions as a Latin term of art. Its functional descendant — the indorsement of instruments — operates under commercial law in all common law systems, but the Latin procedural term belongs strictly to the medieval and early modern English legal tradition.