Definition
A historical English writ directing the certification of the foot of a fine — the official record copy retained after a final concord was levied before justices in eyre or other authorized tribunals — into the Court of Chancery. The writ commanded that this recorded foot be transmitted to the Chancery for enrollment and safekeeping as part of the permanent record of the transaction.
The phrase resolves roughly as "for sending the levied [fine] into Chancery," reflecting both the procedural act (levying the fine before a competent court) and the administrative consequence (enrolling the certified record in the Chancery rolls).
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Common Confusion
The sole historical dictionary entry for this term appears under the heading LARIUM in Rapalje & Lawrence, which is almost certainly a typographical corruption of LEVATI — a hazard that will defeat keyword searches and may cause researchers to overlook or misidentify the entry entirely. Researchers encountering LARIUM in that source should treat it as referring to this writ.
The writ should also be distinguished from the general process of levying a fine, which was the underlying substantive transaction. LEVATI MITTENDO IN CANCELLARIAM was the administrative instrument that followed the levying, not the fine itself.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is a trap for researchers working with medieval and early modern English common law records for several reasons.
**The corrupted headword.** Rapalje & Lawrence indexes this writ under LARIUM, not under LEVATI or any recognizable variant of the actual phrase. A researcher browsing alphabetically or searching digitized text for LEVATI will not find the entry. Cross-checking under both headwords is essential.
**Jurisdictional and temporal scope.** This writ belongs to the procedural machinery of English common law prior to the abolition of fines and recoveries. The Fines and Recoveries Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 74) swept away the system of conveyancing by fine, rendering this writ obsolete. Any encounter with it in primary sources will date to pre-1833 English practice; it has no American common law counterpart of significance.
**The foot of a fine as a records artifact.** Understanding this writ requires familiarity with the three-part indenture structure of a final concord: the two copies delivered to the parties and the foot retained by the court. The foot was the state's copy and the basis for enrollment. LEVATI MITTENDO IN CANCELLARIAM was the mechanism that moved the foot from the court of record where the fine was levied into the Chancery rolls. Researchers tracing title to English land in historical records may encounter references to Chancery enrollment that presuppose this writ's operation.
**Corpus connections.** This writ connects to the broader Law Mind corpus materials on conveyancing by fine, the Chancery enrollment system, and the Register of Original Writs (Registrum Omnium Brevium), cited as "Reg. Orig. 669" in Rapalje & Lawrence. That register is the primary source for the writ's formal existence; researchers seeking the original form should consult the Registrum directly.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence provide the only identified entry in the shelf sources, and it is sparse — a single sentence describing the writ's function and a citation to the Registrum Omnium Brevium at folio 669. The entry's placement under LARIUM rather than LEVATI suggests either a typesetting error in the original publication or a deliberate abbreviation that was subsequently garbled. No substantive definition of the writ's elements, issuing authority, or procedural context is provided.
Other historical dictionaries of English law, including Jacob's Law Dictionary and Termes de la Ley, address the broader system of fines and the foot of a fine at length, but do not appear to treat this specific writ as a discrete entry. Bouvier's Law Dictionary, in its various American editions, similarly addresses fines as a mode of conveyancing but does not list this writ by name, consistent with its limited relevance to American practice.
The Registrum Omnium Brevium remains the authoritative primary source for the writ's formal text.
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Jurisdictional Note
This writ is exclusively English in origin and application. American jurisdictions did not adopt conveyancing by fine as a general practice, and the writ has no recognized American procedural equivalent. Researchers working in American legal history will encounter this term only in comparative or historical discussions of English land law.
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