NOTATION - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NOTATIONAuthored

The Law Mind • 848 words

Definition

In English probate practice, a notation is a memorandum of some special circumstance endorsed on a grant of probate or letters of administration. The notation records a fact that affects the scope or validity of the grant but that does not appear on the face of the grant itself. The most common example is a domicile notation: where letters of administration are granted for the whole of a deceased person's personal estate within the United Kingdom — a grant available only when the deceased died domiciled in England — the domiciliary fact is formally noted on the grant to justify its territorial scope.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of representing something by a system of marks, signs, or symbols; also, a specific note or piece of information written using such a system.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act or practice of recording anything by marks, figures, or characters; particularly, any system of symbols used in arithmetic, algebra, or science to express technical facts or quantities briefly.

The gap here matters. In ordinary English, "notation" suggests a system of symbols (musical notation, mathematical notation) or any informal marginal note. In probate law, the term has a precise procedural meaning: a formal endorsement on a specific legal instrument that memorializes a qualifying or limiting fact for purposes of the grant's legal effect. The casual sense of a jotted note carries none of that procedural weight.

Common Confusion

Notation is sometimes loosely conflated with annotation or endorsement. An annotation typically adds explanatory commentary to a text. An endorsement in commercial law transfers or guarantees an instrument. A probate notation does neither — it is a formal administrative act that records the evidentiary predicate for the grant's scope. Researchers encountering "notation" in modern American probate materials should also be alert: American practice uses the term less formally and may mean nothing more than a clerical note on a file, lacking the distinct procedural status the term carries in English probate law.

Why It Matters in Research

This term is primarily a term of English probate practice with limited direct parallel in American law. Researchers working in nineteenth-century Anglo-American probate materials need to distinguish between the English technical use and any incidental American usage of the same word.

The English domicile notation was a substantive act with legal consequences: it established on the record that the jurisdictional predicate for a universal personal estate grant had been satisfied. When reading historical English probate records or treatises, the presence or absence of a domicile notation on a grant may determine whether that grant purported to cover foreign-situated personalty — a point that recurs in international succession and conflict-of-laws research.

For researchers tracing the term through the historical dictionary corpus, Bouvier's entry is the most compressed and should not be treated as exhaustive; Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence all track the same English probate authority (Coote on Probate Practice). This convergence means the corpus reflects a single learned source rather than independent doctrinal development — researchers should go to Coote directly if deeper analysis of the practice is required.

In modern research, the word "notation" appears in entirely unrelated legal contexts: UCC Article 9 financing statements, credit agreements, bond issuances, and contract modification practice. None of those usages connect to the probate meaning. Keyword searches across mixed-era corpora will surface these unrelated materials alongside the historical probate usage, requiring careful filtering by date and subject matter.

Historical Dictionary Support

All four source dictionaries agree on the definition and confine it to English probate practice. Black's first and second editions are nearly identical, both attributing the example to Coote's Probate Practice. Rapalje & Lawrence preserves the same core definition but the surviving text is fragmentary, suggesting the entry may have extended into related procedural territory (the partial text references a plea having the same effect as if facts had been specifically pleaded — context that may relate to a distinct but adjacent procedural point about notations on pleadings, though the text is too truncated to confirm). Bouvier is characteristically brief and adds nothing beyond the bare definition.

None of the historical sources addresses how notation practice adapted to, or differed from, Scottish, Irish, or colonial administration contexts, which is a gap researchers working on cross-jurisdictional succession questions will need to fill from primary sources.

Jurisdictional Note

The formal probate notation as defined here is a creature of English ecclesiastical and probate court practice, codified under nineteenth-century English probate statutes. American jurisdictions generally did not adopt this specific procedural form; American probate courts record domicile and other qualifying facts through different mechanisms. Researchers applying this term to American materials should verify whether the term is being used in the English technical sense or merely as a general synonym for a clerical note.

NOTATIONmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In English probate prac- tice, notation is the act of making a memo- randum of some special circumstance on a probate or letters of administration. Thus, where a grant is made for the whole personal estate of the deceased within the United King- dom, which can only be done in the case of a person dying domiciled in England, the fact of his having been so domiciled is noted on the grant. Coote, Prob. Pr. 36; Sweet. NOTE, v. To make a brief written state- ment; to enter a memorandum; as to note an exception. NOTE, n. An abstract, a memorandum; an informal statement in writing. Also a NOTE; NOTES; JUDGMENT NOTE; PROM- ISSORY NOTE; SOLD NOTE.

NOTATIONmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

In English probate practice, notation is the act of making a memorandum of some special circumstance on a probate or letters of administration. Thus, where a grant is made for the whole personal estate of the deceased within the United Kingdom, which can only be done.in the case of a person dying domiciled in England, the fact of his having been so domiciled is noted on the grant. Coote, Prob. Pr. 36; Sweet. NOTE, v. To make a brief written statement; to enter a memorandum; as to note an exception. —Note a bill. When a foreign bill has been dishonored, it is usual for a notary public to present it again on the same day, and, if it be not then paid, to make a minute, consisting of his initials, the day, month, and year, and reason, if assigned, of non-payment. The making of this minute is called “noting the bill. Wharton. NOTE, n. An abstract, a memorandum; an informal statement in writing. Also a negotiable promissory note. See BoucGnt NOTE; NOTES; JUDGMENT NOTE; PROMISSORY NoTE; SOLD NOTE. ~Note of a fine. In old conveyancing. One of the parts of a fine of lands, being an abstract of the writ of covenant, and the concord; naming the parties, the parcels of land, and the agreement. 2 Bl. Comm. 351.—Note of allowance. In English practice. This was a note delivered by a master to a party to a cause, who alleged that there was error in law in the record and proceedings, allowing him to bring error.—Note of hand. A popular name for a promissory note. Perry v. Maxwell, 17 N. C. 496; Hopkins v. Holt, 9 Wis. 230.— Note of protest. A memorandum of the fact of protest, indorsed by the notary upon the bill, at the time, to be afterwards written out at ir Magara or memorandum. The statute of frauds requires a “note or memorandum” of the particular transaction to be made in writing and signed, etc. By this is generally un-

NOTATIONmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

-In English probate practice, pursuance of the statute, so that such a notation is the act of making a memorandum of plea has the same effect as if he had some special circumstance on a probate or letters of administration. Thus, where a grant is made pleaded the facts and his defense specififor the whole personal estate of the deceased cally. (See, for instance, Stat. 5 and 6 within the United Kingdom, which can only be Will. IV. c. 76, § 76; Id. c. 63, 339. See, done in the case of a person dying domiciled in also, Stat. 5 and 6 Vict. c. 97, § 3.) This is England, the fact of his having been so domiciled is noted on the grant. Coote Prob. Pr. 36. called pleading "not guilty by statute," and may still be done in England under the new practice, but the defendant cannot plead any other defense without leave (Rules of Court xix. 16); and he must East 307. NOTARY PUBLIC, (defined). 6 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 486. (duties of). 2 Hill (N. Y.) 227. Pr. 36. (history of the office of). 2 Chit. Gen. NOTE, (in statute of frauds). 2 Johns. (N. Y.) 430; 7 Id. 321; 3 Wend. (N. Y.) 459; 5 Barn. & C. 583; 6 Id. 437; 9 Id. 561; 1 Bing. 9; 1 Bos. & P. N. R. 252; 8 Dowl. & Ry. 343; 6

NOTATIONn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act or practice of recording anything by marks, figures, or characters. Any particular system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in art or science, to express briefly technical facts, quantities, etc. Esp., the system of figures, letters, and signs used in arithmetic and algebra to express number, quantity, or operations. Literal or etymological signification. [Obs.] "Conscience" is a Latin word, and, according to the very notation of it, imports a double or joint knowledge. South.

notationnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The act, process, method, or an instance of representing by a system or set of marks, signs, figures, or characters. | A system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in an art or science or in mathematics or logic to express technical facts or quantities. | A specific note or piece of information written in such a notation.

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