Definition
A post fine was a sum of money formerly payable to the Crown as a condition of obtaining the licentia concordandi — the formal leave to agree — when levying a fine of lands in the royal courts of England. It was not a penalty in the modern sense but rather a fee extracted by the sovereign for permitting parties to complete the conveyancing procedure known as a fine. The amount was fixed by formula: three-twentieths of the supposed annual value of the land, calculated at ten shillings for every five marks of land.
The term is inseparable from the obsolete common law conveyancing device of the fine (also called a fine sur cognizance de droit), by which a fictitious or collusive action was brought in the royal courts and settled by agreement, with the resulting court record serving as an unimpeachable title document. The post fine was one of two fees payable to the Crown in that process; the other, the primer fine, was paid at the outset when the writ was issued.
The procedure — and with it the post fine — was abolished in England by the Fines and Recoveries Act 1833, rendering the term a matter of purely historical and antiquarian interest.
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Common Confusion
Post fine is easily confused with primer fine, the companion fee in the same conveyancing procedure. The primer fine was payable at the beginning of the process, on suing out the writ of covenant; the post fine was payable at the end, on granting leave to complete the agreement. Researchers encountering either term in historical deeds, court records, or title abstracts should understand that both appear in the same transaction and serve distinct procedural moments within it. Neither should be confused with the modern usage of "fine" as a criminal or civil penalty.
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Why It Matters in Research
Post fine is a specialist term encountered almost exclusively in pre-1833 English land title records, conveyancing treatises, and historical accounts of the fine as a mode of conveyance. Researchers working with colonial American land records should be aware that the procedure for levying fines was transplanted to some American colonies, meaning post fine may surface in colonial-era title chains and court records, though the practice was never uniformly adopted and varied considerably by colony.
The most significant research trap is misreading "post fine" in a historical document as a reference to any monetary penalty assessed after a proceeding, rather than recognizing it as a term of art tied to the specific conveyancing mechanism. The context — land transfer, royal court, licentia concordandi — is always present in proper usage and should resolve ambiguity.
Researchers working backward through title abstracts will sometimes encounter references to fines levied in court as the basis of title. Understanding that the post fine was a revenue mechanism, not a record of wrongdoing, is essential to correct interpretation. The source document at the heart of such a title chain is the foot of the fine — the bottom copy of the tripartite indenture retained by the court — not any penalty judgment.
For American legal history purposes, the fine as a conveyancing device largely gave way to deed-based transfers early in the colonial period, and post fine as a practical matter has no continuing life in American law. Its relevance is archival and interpretive.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier and Burrill agree on the substance, though they differ in emphasis. Bouvier identifies the post fine as "a duty formerly paid to the king for a fine acknowledged in his court" — a brief, functional description. Burrill is more precise and more useful, locating the term in "old conveyancing," identifying its alternative name (king's silver), tying it to the licentia concordandi, and supplying the exact calculation formula drawn from Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 350). Burrill's entry is the more complete of the two for research purposes.
Neither dictionary dwells on the distinction between post fine and primer fine, though both terms existed in practice. Blackstone's Commentaries Book II remains the foundational primary source on the mechanics of levying a fine of lands and is the reference both dictionaries ultimately derive from on this point. Researchers seeking a full procedural account should go directly to Blackstone rather than relying on the compressed dictionary treatments.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Fines and Financial Penalties (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia) — background on fines generally; note that the criminal fine shares only its name with the post fine and is conceptually unrelated.
Excessive Fines and Bail — The Eighth Amendment's Other Clauses (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia) — similarly tangential, but useful if the research question involves whether historical revenue-raising fees on conveyances bear any relation to constitutional fine doctrine.
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