Definition
An abbreviation for Norfolcia, the Latin form of Norfolkshire (Norfolk), a county in England. The term appears in early legal manuscripts and clerical instruments as a contracted reference to the county of Norfolk, used in the manner common to Latin legal drafting of the period.
Why It Matters in Research
NORFF is a scribal and clerical abbreviation, not a substantive legal term. Researchers encountering it in historical English legal documents, pleadings, or court records should treat it as a geographic marker indicating that the instrument, action, or proceeding had a connection to Norfolk. Its significance is entirely contextual: it tells the reader where, not what.
The abbreviation appears in instructional texts on clerical practice — Burrill cites Inst. Cler. 28 — which were guides for court clerks and legal draftsmen on the correct form of legal documents. Researchers working through English county court records, assize records, or instruments drafted in Law Latin will encounter county abbreviations of this type routinely. Misreading or overlooking them can produce geographic misattribution of a case or instrument.
Because Latin county abbreviations were not standardized across all periods and jurisdictions, a researcher should not assume NORFF is the only form used for Norfolk. Variant abbreviations appear across different manuscript traditions and clerical schools.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary defines NORFF solely as an abbreviation of Norfolcia, Norfolkshire, citing Inst. Cler. 28. The entry is brief and functional, consistent with Burrill's practice of including clerical and scribal abbreviations that a legal researcher consulting historical documents would need decoded. No substantive legal meaning attaches to the term itself; its entire content is geographic.
Historical dictionaries of this period routinely catalogued such abbreviations because the primary users of law dictionaries were practitioners and clerks navigating Latin and Law French sources. Modern legal dictionaries have largely abandoned this category, meaning NORFF and similar county abbreviations are now findable almost exclusively in older reference works.