Definition
Sentia is a Latin term found in older ecclesiastical and probate law, functioning as a shorthand or abbreviated form referencing administration granted during a particular condition — specifically, the absence of an executor. In practice, the full phrase most commonly encountered in historical sources is administration durante absentia, meaning administration of a decedent's estate authorized by a court during the executor's absence. Sentia in this context denotes the operative condition: the state of absence that triggers the grant of a limited, temporary form of administration.
The term does not describe a type of administrator or a permanent appointment. It labels the jurisdictional condition under which the surrogate or probate court is empowered to act and authorize another person to collect and preserve estate assets until the absent executor appears and qualifies.
Common Confusion
Sentia as a standalone term is easily confused with the broader category of durante administration generally, which covers several distinct circumstances: minority of an executor, incapacity, absence, or pendency of litigation over a will. Researchers encountering "sentia" in historical probate records or digests should not assume it refers to any of these other durante variants. The term specifically signals absence, not any other disability or disqualification. It is also distinct from administration de bonis non, which arises when an executor dies or is removed — not merely absent.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in older common law probate literature and early American court records predating the consolidation of estate administration statutes. Researchers working in pre-Civil War American probate records, particularly in states that retained ecclesiastical law influences, will encounter it as a descriptor in surrogate court proceedings and digests. Several practical traps exist:
First, sentia is rarely indexed as a standalone term. It appears embedded within longer Latin phrases, most often durante absentia or administratio durante absentia, and researchers relying on keyword searches for "sentia" alone will miss the bulk of relevant material.
Second, Burrill's entry notes a direct New York statutory analog: special letters ad colligendum, authorized under the 1829 New York Revised Statutes. This means that in New York practice, the Latin ecclesiastical concept was replaced by a specific statutory mechanism. Researchers examining New York estates from the 1830s onward should search under ad colligendum rather than sentia or durante absentia.
Third, the term's practical function — preserving assets pending an executor's return — maps to modern concepts of temporary administration or collection administration, but the modern forms are purely statutory and carry different procedural requirements. Projecting modern probate procedure backward onto historical sentia grants will produce anachronistic readings.
Fourth, the Burrill entry cross-references Blackstone's Commentaries (Book II) and Lutwyche's reports, both essential for understanding the English ecclesiastical law backdrop. Any research into the colonial or early federal period that encounters this term should anchor itself in the ecclesiastical court jurisdiction from which American probate courts derived their authority.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the only historical shelf source to address sentia directly, and its treatment is brief but functionally complete. Burrill identifies the term as administration during absence, cites Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 503) for the English ecclesiastical law foundation, references Lutwyche's King's Bench reports (1 Lutw. 342) for case authority, and adds an early American citation (8 Cranch's R. 9) showing the concept's reception in federal courts. The New York statutory note grounds the term in the specific American legislative response to these ecclesiastical categories.
No competing or contradictory definitions appear across the historical shelf for this term — it is not a contested concept but a narrow Latin descriptor tied to a specific condition of estate administration. What the historical sources collectively omit is any sustained treatment of how courts resolved disputes over whether an executor's absence was sufficiently established to trigger the grant, or what duration of absence was required. Researchers needing that procedural detail must look beyond the dictionary sources to reported surrogate court decisions.
Jurisdictional Note
American states varied in how they received and codified the English ecclesiastical categories of durante administration. New York's early statutory scheme explicitly displaced the Latin forms with specific enumerated grants, including ad colligendum letters for absent executors. Other states retained the Latin terminology longer in local practice and court rules. Researchers should not assume uniform treatment across jurisdictions.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Administration of Estates; Durante Administration; Ad Colligendum