Definition
A letters close (plural: letters close) is a formal written instrument issued under royal authority, sealed with the sovereign's privy seal or signet, and addressed to a specific person or persons for a particular purpose. Unlike letters patent, which were directed to the public at large and left open for inspection, letters close were folded or rolled and sealed on the outside, making their contents private. They functioned as the Crown's mechanism for communicating confidential commands, grants, or authorizations to named recipients.
Common Confusion
Letters close are frequently defined only in contrast to letters patent, which can obscure the fact that they were affirmative instruments in their own right — capable of granting rights, directing officers, or authorizing action — rather than merely the residual category of instruments that were not patent. The physical distinction (sealed shut versus left open) reflected a substantive legal distinction: letters patent conferred public rights that strangers might need to inspect and rely upon; letters close conveyed private royal communications where no such public notice was required.
Why It Matters in Research
Letters close are primarily of historical interest, most relevant to researchers working in English constitutional history, medieval and early modern property law, and the administrative history of the Crown. The Close Rolls — the official record series in which letters close were enrolled — are held at the UK National Archives and constitute a primary source for tracing royal grants, appointments, and private royal communications from the reign of King John onward. Researchers encountering references to "Close Roll" entries in historical legal sources should understand that these are the enrolled counterparts of letters close.
The term appears in English legal dictionaries through the nineteenth century but had no meaningful American counterpart. Colonial and early American legal practice did not replicate the Close Roll system, so the term in American sources is almost exclusively encountered in commentary on English law rather than in operative domestic instruments. Researchers should not expect to find letters close functioning as active legal instruments in American jurisdictions at any period.
A key navigational trap: the word "close" here has nothing to do with the real property meaning of "close" (an enclosed piece of land) or with the procedural meaning of "closing" (as in real estate transactions or tax closing agreements). The shared vocabulary can cause confusion when researchers move across subject areas within a historical corpus.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical dictionaries converge on the same essential definition but differ in emphasis. Black's frames letters close primarily by contrast — they are private, as opposed to letters patent, which are public — without elaborating on their form or function. Rapalje & Lawrence offers the most complete account, describing the instrument as sealed with the great seal, directed to particular persons, and physically closed and sealed on the outside, with citations to Blackstone (2 Bl. Com. 346) and Stephen's Commentaries (1 Steph. Com. 619). Bouvier adds the important detail that the sealing instrument was the royal signet or privy seal rather than the broad seal (which authenticated letters patent), and flags the alternative name "Letters Claus," citing Wharton's Law Lexicon.
All three sources treat the distinction from letters patent as the organizing principle of the definition. None addresses the administrative machinery of the Close Rolls in any depth, and none speaks to American application — appropriately so, since the instrument was a product of English royal administration with no domestic analog.