Definition
A prerogative writ directed to the magistrates of a corporation, commanding them either (1) not to admit or appoint a named individual to a particular office, or (2) not to remove a person currently holding an office — until an inquiry has been conducted into the fitness, conduct, or qualifications of the individual concerned. The writ functioned as a judicial check on the appointment and removal powers of corporate bodies, interposing royal authority between a corporation and its officers pending formal inquiry.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a rare prerogative writ of limited historical circulation, surfacing primarily in early register of writs sources and derivative dictionaries. Researchers encountering this term are almost certainly working in pre-modern English legal materials — likely before the nineteenth century reforms that consolidated or abolished much of the prerogative writ system.
Several research traps are worth flagging:
First, the spelling in historical sources is inconsistent. Black's Second Edition Supplemental renders the term with the apparent misprint "Officiarhs" (likely a compositor's corruption of "Officiariis"), and the body of the entry contains additional typographic artifacts ("oflicer," "ln-quiry"). Researchers searching corpus materials should anticipate variant spellings including Officiariis Non Faciendis, Officiis Non Faciendis, and similar forms. Do not treat any single rendering as canonical when searching manuscript or early printed sources.
Second, the writ has two distinct functional modes collapsed into a single Latin phrase: one prohibiting appointment (non faciendis) and one prohibiting removal (amovendis). A writ in a specific case will be doing one or the other, not both simultaneously. Readers of historical pleadings should identify which function is operative in context.
Third, this writ sits within a broader ecosystem of writs governing corporate officers and municipal governance. Its practical territory overlaps with mandamus (which compels action), prohibition (which restrains action), and quo warranto (which challenges the right to hold office). Understanding where this writ ends and those others begin is essential for navigating early equity and common law records accurately.
Fourth, the underlying authority — the Registrum Omnium Brevium, commonly cited as Reg. Orig. — is a foundational register of English writs. Black's citation to Reg. Orig. 126 anchors this entry in that tradition, but researchers should note that printed editions of the register vary and pagination may differ across copies.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental provides the only dictionary treatment available in the Law Mind corpus. The entry is brief and functional: it identifies the writ's addressee (magistrates of a corporation), states both operative purposes (preventing appointment and preventing removal), and grounds the writ's existence in a fitness inquiry ("inquiry made of his manners"). The citation to Reg. Orig. 126 is the authoritative anchor.
The entry offers no elaboration on how the inquiry was to proceed, who could petition for the writ, what standard governed fitness, or how the writ interacted with contemporary mandamus practice. These gaps are consistent with what the historical dictionaries generally do for obscure prerogative writs — they note existence and basic function without procedural depth. Researchers needing more than the bare definition must go to the register itself, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, or Comyns' Digest for fuller treatment.
The typographic corruption in the Black's entry ("Officiarhs," "oflicer," "ln-quiry") is significant enough to affect corpus searchability and should be treated as an artifact of the supplemental volume's production, not as an authoritative variant spelling.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is a product of English common law and the prerogative writ system. It has no recognized parallel in American federal practice and does not appear to have been adopted in colonial or early American state courts in any identifiable form. Researchers working in American legal materials are unlikely to encounter it outside of comparative or historical discussions of the English writ system.