Definition
The Great Seal is the official seal of a sovereign state or government, used to authenticate the highest acts of state — treaties, royal proclamations, letters patent, commissions, and other instruments of supreme governmental authority. Affixing the Great Seal signals that a document carries the full legal force and formal sanction of the sovereign power.
In the English constitutional tradition, the Great Seal of England (later Great Britain, then the United Kingdom) is the physical emblem of royal authority delegated through the highest officers of state. Its custody defines the office of Lord Chancellor: historically, the office was not created by royal appointment alone but by the act of delivering the seal into the Chancellor's hands. The seal's physical transfer was, in a meaningful legal sense, the appointment.
In American usage, each of the fifty states maintains its own Great Seal, as does the federal government. The Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782, authenticates presidential documents, treaties, and commissions of federal officers. Custody of the federal seal rests with the Secretary of State by statute.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The official seal of a government or head of state, used to authenticate important documents; also the impression made by such a seal.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The principal seal of a government or sovereign, especially that of England, kept by the Lord Chancellor.
The gap between common and legal meaning here is narrow but consequential in historical research. In ordinary speech, "the great seal" may refer loosely to any impressive official stamp. In law, the term carries specific constitutional weight: in the English tradition, custody of the seal is not merely symbolic but constitutive of office. A Lord Chancellor without the seal is, strictly speaking, not yet Chancellor. Researchers reading historical statutes or chancery records should treat references to the seal as references to office, authority, and legal capacity — not mere ceremony.
Common Confusion
THE GREAT SEAL vs. THE PRIVY SEAL: The Privy Seal was a lesser seal used for royal correspondence and warrants that did not rise to the level requiring the Great Seal. Documents authenticated by the Privy Seal alone carried different legal weight and were processed through a separate officer (the Lord Privy Seal). Historical researchers encountering either term should not treat them as interchangeable; the distinction determines the legal force and procedural pedigree of the underlying instrument.
THE GREAT SEAL vs. THE BROAD SEAL: "Broad seal" is an older synonym for the Great Seal in some sources, referring to its size relative to lesser seals. Burrill uses this terminology in related entries. Researchers in colonial American records may encounter "broad seal" where modern usage would say "great seal."
Why It Matters in Research
This term sits at the intersection of constitutional law, administrative history, and chancery practice, and its significance shifts depending on which legal system and time period you are researching.
In English legal history, the Great Seal is functionally inseparable from the Court of Chancery and the office of Lord Chancellor. Because the chancellorship was created by delivery of the seal — not by letters patent or formal commission — disputes about who held the seal were disputes about who held jurisdiction. Researchers working in equity jurisprudence, chancery records, or the history of the Lord Chancellor's office need to track seal custody carefully; gaps or transfers in that custody affected the legal validity of instruments issued during transitional periods.
The statute cited in Burrill — 5 Eliz. c. 18 — is the key legislative moment at which the offices of Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Chancellor were formally united. Before that statute, the two offices could be held separately, and instruments issued under each carried different authority. This distinction matters for any research touching pre-Elizabethan chancery practice.
In American legal research, the Great Seal of the United States appears in constitutional and statutory contexts involving presidential power: treaties require the seal, commissions of federal officers bear it, and the Secretary of State's custody of the seal has occasionally been legally significant (most famously as a background fact in Marbury v. Madison, where a withheld commission raised questions about seal, delivery, and completed appointment). State researchers should note that state great seals serve analogous authenticating functions under state law, and that the formalities for their use vary by jurisdiction.
Researchers using Burrill should be aware that the entry under this heading is brief and England-focused, and does not address American practice at all. Burrill was writing in the mid-nineteenth century for an audience working primarily with English common law sources; the entry is useful as a guide to the English tradition but requires supplementation for any American context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry focuses tightly on the English officer — the Custos Magni Sigilli, or Keeper of the Great Seal — rather than on the seal itself as a legal instrument. He cites Blackstone's Commentaries (3 Bl. Com. 47) and Stephen's Commentaries (3 Steph. Com. 407), both of which treat the Lord Chancellor's office and its relationship to the seal in some depth. Blackstone's treatment remains the most useful historical source for understanding why custody of a physical object could constitute, and not merely symbolize, high legal office.
What Burrill does not address: the procedural requirements for affixing the seal, the legal consequences of documents issued without it, the American adoption of analogous seal practice, or the role of state great seals in domestic American law. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as an entry point to the English tradition only.
Jurisdictional Note
In England and Wales, the Great Seal's constitutional role has evolved significantly since Burrill's era; modern usage is more ceremonial than constitutive, with the Lord Chancellor's office now defined by statute rather than seal delivery alone. In the United States, each sovereign — federal and state — maintains its own great seal under separate legal authority, with custody and use governed by federal statute (for the national seal) or state law (for state seals). Researchers should not assume English rules about seal custody or legal effect apply in American jurisdictions.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Constitutional Law Encyclopedia: Habeas Corpus — The Great Writ and Suspension Clause (constitutional_151) — relevant for understanding the category of supreme sovereign legal instruments of which the Great Seal is the authenticating mechanism in high-stakes writs and commissions.