Definition
An abbreviation of *narratio* (Latin: "narration" or "statement"). In historical common law practice, *narr* referred to the plaintiff's declaration — the formal pleading that set out the facts and grounds upon which the plaintiff's claim rested. It was the opening statement of the plaintiff's case in an action at law, equivalent to what modern practice calls a complaint or declaration.
Common Confusion
NARR and NARRATIO are the same concept — the abbreviation and the full Latin term are interchangeable in historical sources. Researchers should not treat them as distinct pleading instruments. Both refer to the plaintiff's declaration. The entries in these dictionaries uniformly cross-reference one to the other.
NARR should also be distinguished from the *declaration* as that term is used in modern evidentiary law (a hearsay exception context). In pleading history, *declaration* and *narr* are synonyms. In a modern evidence context, *declaration* means something entirely different. The two uses share a word but occupy different legal universes.
Why It Matters in Research
NARR is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in pre-modern sources — English and early American case reports, pleading manuals, and common law treatises from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is a term of historical pleading, not modern practice. By the mid-nineteenth century, code pleading reforms (beginning with the Field Code in New York, 1848) and eventually the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938) displaced the formal declaration system, and with it the vocabulary of narr and narratio.
Researchers reading early American reports, particularly from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and other states with strong common law pleading traditions, will encounter *narr* in its abbreviated form without explanation. It signals that the text is discussing the plaintiff's formal declaration — the pleading that launched the action and that opposing counsel would answer or demur to.
The abbreviation also appears in pleading practice manuals widely used in American courts through the early nineteenth century. Burrill cites *1 Inst. Cler.* (Instructor Clericalis) and *1 Burr. Pr.* (Burrow's Practice), both English practitioner texts that formed part of the standard pleading library in early American courts. When these sources discuss the form, length, or requirements of the narr, they are discussing what modern proceduralists would call the sufficiency of the complaint.
A secondary research trap: indexes and digests from this period may file material under *narr*, *narratio*, or *declaration* inconsistently. Researchers tracking pleading doctrine across sources should check all three entry points.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources are in close agreement: *narr* is simply a shorthand for *narratio* and denotes the plaintiff's declaration. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier converge on this without elaboration. Burrill adds the most navigational value by citing specific practitioner texts and grounding the term explicitly in common law practice (*the plaintiff's declaration in an action at law*).
None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the internal requirements of the narr itself — what it had to contain, how it related to the writ, or what defects rendered it vulnerable to demurrer. For that substance, researchers must go to the pleading treatises Burrill cites, or to Chitty on Pleading and similar works. The dictionary entries function here as signposts, not definitions of doctrine.