Definition
A Latin term appearing in old English law, denoting a written instrument or slip of writing held in the nature of an escrow — that is, a deed or document delivered to a third party to be held conditionally until some performance or event occurred, at which point it would take legal effect. The term is essentially a Latinized form of the same concept underlying the modern escrow: conditional delivery of a written instrument.
Why It Matters in Research
SCEDULA is a term a researcher will encounter almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal sources, particularly Year Book-era materials and the early reporting tradition. Its practical significance is navigational: when you find scedula in an old record or abridgment, you are reading about escrow doctrine, not a distinct or separate legal institution. The reference in Burrill to Dyer's Reports (34b) places the term squarely in the mid-sixteenth century common law, a period when Latin and Law French terminology still dominated formal legal writing.
The key research trap is treating scedula as a term with independent doctrinal content. It has none that survives separately. Researchers following a thread on conditional delivery of deeds, the legal effect of escrows, or the formalities of conveyancing in early English law should translate scedula immediately to escrow and pursue that line. Searching old digests and abridgments under scedula without also searching under escrow, escrowl, or conditional delivery will produce an incomplete picture.
There is also a paleographic dimension: manuscript and early print sources may spell the term inconsistently — schedula, scedula, cedula — reflecting variant Latinizations of a common root. A researcher working with original records should not assume variant spellings represent distinct legal concepts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the primary English-language legal dictionary source for this term, and his entry is brief to the point of terseness: he defines scedula as an escrow and cites Dyer. This reflects the term's status even by the nineteenth century — it was already archaic, preserved in legal dictionaries as a historical marker rather than a living term of practice. Burrill's citation to Dyer's Reports is genuine and locates the term in early Elizabethan-era common law reporting.
What the historical dictionaries do not supply is any developed treatment of how scedula functioned as a distinct legal concept, because it did not. The term is essentially a Latin label for the instrument involved in what the common law called escrow. Modern legal dictionaries have dropped the term entirely, which is itself informative: its disappearance tracks the shift from Latin legal discourse to English-language pleading and conveyancing.
Jurisdictional Note
The term has no recognized use in American or modern English law. It is encountered only in historical English sources. Researchers working in civil law traditions should note that schedula appears in Roman and medieval civil law with a broader meaning — any written note or list — and should not assume the civil law usage maps onto the narrow escrow sense found in Burrill's common law entry.