Definition
"Save as aforesaid" is a drafting phrase used in legal instruments — statutes, contracts, deeds, and pleadings — to introduce an exception or reservation that has already been stated earlier in the same document. It functions as a shorthand cross-reference: the reader is directed back to a previously expressed qualification, carve-out, or saving clause without repeating it in full. The effect is to limit, condition, or qualify the provision in which the phrase appears, subject to whatever exception was set out "aforesaid" (i.e., previously in the text).
In practice, the phrase operates as a limiting clause. A grant, obligation, or prohibition stated broadly will be narrowed by "save as aforesaid" to exclude the specific circumstances, persons, or conditions already described. Its meaning is therefore inseparable from its immediate textual context — the phrase carries no independent legal content and must be read by reference to the antecedent saving language.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Save" in ordinary use means to rescue or preserve something from harm. "Aforesaid" means previously mentioned or stated. Together, the phrase would commonly suggest preserving something mentioned before — not a natural reading for most modern readers.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 recognized "save" in the sense of "except" or "unless" — a now-archaic but once-standard English construction. "Aforesaid" was in common legal and formal use as a synonym for "previously mentioned."
The gap here is significant. A modern reader encountering "save as aforesaid" might parse it as meaning "rescue as previously described," when in legal drafting it means "except as previously stated." The word "save" in this construction is a conjunction of exception, not a verb of preservation — a distinction that was clearer to readers of 18th- and 19th-century legal English than it is today.
Common Confusion
"Save as aforesaid" is frequently confused with the broader category of saving clauses (also called savings clauses), which preserve existing rights, remedies, or legal relationships from the operation of a new statute or provision. The two are related but distinct: a saving clause is the substantive carve-out itself, while "save as aforesaid" is merely a cross-referencing device pointing back to a saving clause or other exception already stated. Conflating the two can lead researchers to treat "save as aforesaid" as doing independent substantive work when it does none — its meaning is entirely derivative of what came before it in the document.
"Save as aforesaid" should also be distinguished from "save harmless" (or "hold harmless"), which is an affirmative undertaking by one party to protect another from specified losses or liabilities. Rapalje & Lawrence cross-references "save harmless" in the same entry, and the proximity of the two phrases in older indexes has sometimes caused researchers to treat them as related legal concepts. They are not — "save harmless" is a contractual obligation; "save as aforesaid" is a drafting connector.
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase is essentially invisible to search-based research unless a researcher is looking specifically for it. It appears with high frequency in 18th- and 19th-century statutes, deeds, indentures, and pleading forms but carries no meaning without the surrounding document. A researcher who encounters "save as aforesaid" in a historical instrument and attempts to interpret it in isolation will find nothing — the phrase is a pointer, not a definition.
Several research traps are worth flagging:
First, older statutory drafting used "save as aforesaid," "except as aforesaid," and "subject as aforesaid" somewhat interchangeably. Courts occasionally had to determine whether a particular formulation operated as a true exception (excluding the subject matter from the provision) or a mere proviso (creating a condition). The distinction mattered for burden of proof and for construction of competing provisions.
Second, in pleading contexts, Rapalje & Lawrence's cross-reference to "Absque Hoc" signals a structural connection: "absque hoc" ("without this") was the formal denial clause in common law traverses, and saving language in pleadings often interacted with denial language in ways that shaped what issues were actually joined. Researchers working with historical pleading records should be alert to this relationship.
Third, in statutory interpretation, when "save as aforesaid" appears in a section of a larger act, locating the "aforesaid" exception may require reading not just the immediately preceding section but potentially an earlier part of the act, a schedule, or even a prior statute incorporated by reference. Failing to identify the correct antecedent saving provision is a common error in historical statutory research.
Finally, the phrase appears almost exclusively in formal legal instruments. Its presence is a reliable indicator that the document follows a traditional drafting register — which can itself be useful information when attempting to date, classify, or assess the drafting conventions of an instrument.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not define "save as aforesaid" substantively. Their entry is a bare cross-reference directing the reader to "Absque Hoc" and immediately pivots to extended treatment of "save harmless." This reflects a common editorial judgment in 19th-century legal dictionaries: purely connective or cross-referential phrases were not thought to require independent definition because their meaning was understood by any trained practitioner reading documents of the period.
The dictionary's decision to cluster "save as aforesaid," "absque hoc," and "save harmless" in proximity is editorially revealing. All three involve the introduction of an exception or qualification into a legal instrument or pleading, and 19th-century practitioners likely encountered them as a functional family of limiting devices. Modern researchers should not, however, import the substantive content of "save harmless" doctrine into their reading of "save as aforesaid" — the clustering is organizational, not definitional.
No other major historical dictionaries — not Black's early editions, not Bouvier, not Burrill — provide extended independent treatment of the phrase, confirming that it was universally understood as a drafting connector rather than a term of art with independent legal content.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase appears across English common law jurisdictions and early American legal instruments without meaningful jurisdictional variation in its basic function. Variation arises, however, in how courts in different jurisdictions have approached the construction of the antecedent saving provision to which the phrase points — American courts, particularly in the 19th century, were more willing than English courts to look beyond the four corners of a single instrument to identify the "aforesaid" exception when documents were incorporated by reference.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Severability -- Saving Statutes After Partial Invalidation (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia) — relevant to understanding how saving language functions at the statutory level, and how courts identify and preserve operative exceptions when part of a statute is struck down.
Saving to Suitors Clause -- Concurrent State Court Jurisdiction and Jury Trial Rights (The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia) — a discrete example of a formal saving clause in federal law, useful as a worked illustration of the saving clause concept to which "save as aforesaid" typically cross-refers.