Definition
A single bill is a written instrument under seal by which one party (the obligor) unconditionally promises to pay a specified sum of money to another party (the obligee) at a fixed future date, without any condition precedent and without a penalty clause. Its defining characteristics are simplicity and unconditionality: the obligation to pay does not depend on the occurrence or non-occurrence of any future event, and no forfeiture or penalty is imposed for non-payment beyond the debt itself.
The single bill stands in contrast to a penal bond or bill obligatory with condition, which typically doubles the stated sum as a penalty and includes a defeasance clause that voids the bond upon performance of some specified act. The single bill omits all such machinery. The debt either is owed or it is not.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No general entry exists for "single bill" as an ordinary English phrase. In common usage, "bill" most often means paper currency, a legislative proposal, or a statement of charges owed.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 defines "bill" in its legal sense as a formal statement or declaration in writing, including obligations and notes, but does not specifically define "single bill" as a distinct instrument.
Editorial note: A modern reader encountering "single bill" in a historical document is unlikely to recognize it as a sealed debt instrument. The word "single" here signals the absence of a penal condition — a technical distinction invisible to ordinary English usage. Researchers should resist reading "single bill" as a casual or informal document; it was a formal sealed obligation with specific legal consequences.
Common Confusion
Single bill is frequently cross-referenced with — and sometimes used interchangeably with — bill single, bill obligatory, and single bond. The distinctions are real but historically blurred:
BILL SINGLE and SINGLE BILL are the same instrument named in different word order. Historical dictionaries treat them as identical; Rapalje & Lawrence simply directs readers from "single bill" to "bill single."
SINGLE BOND is closely related and in earlier usage nearly synonymous, but the bond form more explicitly names the obligor's heirs, executors, and administrators as bound alongside the obligor himself. Burrill notes that single bills "seem to have formerly been nearly the same with a single bond." Over time, bond and bill drifted toward distinct uses in practice, even if the underlying legal structure remained similar.
PROMISSORY NOTE is the modern functional successor. Unlike a single bill, a promissory note does not require a seal and is governed by negotiable instruments law. A single bill was a sealed specialty; a note is a simple contract. The distinction mattered enormously for statutes of limitations (sealed instruments historically enjoyed longer limitation periods) and for defenses available to the obligor.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century American legal records — particularly court pleadings, probate inventories, and debt litigation — will encounter single bills as live instruments, not historical curiosities. Several research traps are worth flagging:
Jurisdictional survival. The single bill persisted longer in some American jurisdictions than others. Burrill specifically identifies Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida as states where single bills remained in use into the mid-nineteenth century. A researcher analyzing debt instruments in those jurisdictions must be alert to the single bill's distinct procedural treatment compared to simple contract debt.
The seal requirement. Because a single bill was a sealed instrument (a specialty), it historically stood outside the law of negotiable instruments. Rules governing assignment, endorsement, holder-in-due-course status, and available defenses did not apply in the same way they would to a note or draft. An action on a single bill was typically an action of debt or covenant on a specialty, not assumpsit.
Statute of limitations. Sealed instruments carried longer limitation periods under common law — typically twenty years versus six for simple contracts in many jurisdictions. Misidentifying a single bill as an unsealed note could lead a researcher to misread the pleadings or the outcome of a case.
Corpus connections. When reviewing estate inventories, single bills often appear as assets of the decedent — debts owed to the estate in sealed instrument form. Their presence signals a more formal creditor-debtor relationship than an open book account or informal promise would.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries converge tightly on the core definition: a single bill is an unconditional obligation under seal for the payment of money, carrying no penalty clause. Black's and Bouvier's are nearly identical in wording, both emphasizing the absence of condition and independence from future events. This consistency across sources reflects a well-settled common law concept rather than a contested or evolving one.
Burrill adds the most practical depth, noting the instrument's sealed character, its near-synonymity with the single bond in early usage, and — crucially — identifying specific American jurisdictions where the instrument remained current with supporting case references. This jurisdictional granularity is absent from Black's and Bouvier's, making Burrill the most useful starting point for American practice research on this term.
What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: none of them address the instrument's relationship to the emerging law of negotiable instruments or explain how the single bill's sealed specialty status affected available defenses and procedural treatment. For that analysis, researchers should consult treatises on the law of contracts and pleading from the same period.
Jurisdictional Note
The single bill as a formal instrument largely disappeared from American practice as negotiable instruments law was codified and seal requirements were abolished or rendered meaningless by statute in most states during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historical research in jurisdictions that retained seal requirements longest — including several mid-Atlantic and southern states — requires particular attention to whether a given debt instrument was sealed, as that status determined the applicable limitations period and procedural framework.