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The Notary Public Profession

The Office of notary public is one of great antiquity and historical significance. It is unclear, however, when or where the first public notary was formally appointed. One of the earliest references to a notary dates back to the time of Cicero (106 - 43BC), the famed Roman orator and statesmen, who, it is claimed, employed persons skilled in the art of writing to record or 'note' his speeches.

Notaries soon developed into a formal branch of the legal profession and notaries were often attached to the Imperial court and prepared and engrossed deeds and other legal documents, which were then sealed under the seal of the court. Eventually, notaries were granted the right to use their own official seals to give their acts "public" status and advice on law, including land transactions. The Roman Consuls and subsequently the emperors of the Roman Empire would appoint notaries to their public office.

The position of notary public remained a figure of importance throughout many parts of continental Europe and was maintained throughout the Dark Ages and Italian Renaissance as a central institution of law. This position remains to date within many countries that derive their legal systems from bodies of civil law.

The history of Notaries is set out in detail in Chapter 1 of Brooke's Notary (12th edition):

"The office of a public notary is a public office. It has a long and distinguished history. The office has its origin in the civil institutions of ancient Rome. Public officials, called "scribae", that is to say, scribes, rose in rank from being mere copiers and transcribers to a learned profession prominent in private and public affairs. Some were permanent officials attached to the Senate and courts of law whose duties were to record public proceedings, transcribe state papers, supply magistrates with legal forms, and register the decrees and judgments of magistrates. In the last century of the Republic, probably in the time of Cicero, a new form of shorthand was invented and certain arbitrary marks and signs, called "notae", were substituted for words in common use. A writer who adopted the new method was called a "notarius". Originally, a notary was one who took down statements in shorthand and wrote them out in the form of memoranda or minutes. Later, the title "notarius" was applied almost exclusively to registrars attached to high government officials, including provincial governors and secretaries to the Emperor.

Notwithstanding the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century AD, the notary remained a figure of some importance in many parts of continental Europe throughout the Dark Ages. When the civil law experienced its renaissance in medieval Italy from the 12th century onwards, the notary was established as a central institution of that law, a position which still obtains in countries whose legal systems are derived from the civil law.

The separate development of the common law in England, free from most of the influences of Roman law, meant that notaries were not introduced into England until later in the 13th and 14th centuries. At first, notaries in England were appointed by the Papal Legate. In 1279 the Archbishop of Canterbury was authorised by the Pope to appoint notaries. Not surprisingly, in those early days, many of the notaries were members of the clergy. In the course of time, members of the clergy ceased to take part in secular business and laymen, especially in towns and trading centres, began to assume the official character and functions of a modern notary.

The Reformation produced no material change in the position and functions of notaries in England. However, in 1533 the enactment of "the Act Concerning Peter's Pence and Dispensations" (The Ecclesiastical Licences Act, 1533) terminated the power of the Pope to appoint notaries and vested that power in the King."

Traditionally, notaries recorded matters of judicial importance as well as private transactions or events where an officially authenticated record or a document drawn up with professional skill or knowledge was required.

The duties and functions of notaries public are described in Brooke's Notary at p 19 in these terms:

" Generally speaking, a notary public ... may be described as an officer of the law ... whose public office and duty it is to draw, attest or certify under his official seal, for use anywhere in the world, deeds and other documents, including wills or other testamentary documents, conveyances of real and personal property and powers of attorney; to authenticate such documents under his signature and official seal in such a manner as to render them acceptable, as proof of the matters attested by him, to the judicial or other public authorities in the country where they are to be used, whether by means of issuing a notarial certificate as to the due execution of such documents or by drawing them in the form of public instruments; to keep a protocol containing originals of all instruments which he makes in the public form and to issue authentic copies of such instruments; to administer oaths and declarations for use in proceedings ... to note or certify transactions relating to negotiable instruments, and to draw up protests or other formal papers relating to occurrences on the voyages of ships and their navigation as well as the carriage of cargo in ships."

After the abdication in 476 AD of Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of Rome, the papacy became the de facto ruler of Rome. When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800AD the empire encompassed the entire heartland of Western Europe, stretching from the Danube to the Pyrenees and from Rome to the North Sea. Ecclesiastical notaries were by then part of the papal household and were known to deal with both ecclesiastical and civil matters. At this time it had become the practice of kings, princes and rulers in communion with the Holy See to seek various dispensations, privileges and faculties which were at the gift of the papacy. One such faculty concerned the appointment of notaries.The Pope, for administrative convenience, frequently delegated the power to appoint public notaries to religious (usually Archbishops) and temporal leaders throughout the Holy Roman Empire. In England, the power to create notaries was vested in and exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury under papal and imperial authority. In Ireland, public notaries were at various times appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Armagh. The position remained so until the Reformation.

There is archival evidence showing that public notaries, acting pursuant to papal and imperial authority, practised in England and in Ireland in the 13th century and it is reasonable to assume that notaries functioned here before that time.

After the Reformation, persons appointed to the office of public notary either in Great Britain or Ireland received the faculty by royal authority and appointments under faculty from the Pope and the emperor ceased.

In 1871, under the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Amendment 1870, the jurisdiction previously exercised by the Archbishop of Armagh in the appointment of notaries was vested in and became exercisable by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In 1920, the power to appoint notaries public was transferred to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The position in Ireland changed once again in 1924 following the establishment of the Irish Free State. Under the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 the jurisdiction over notaries public was transferred to the Chief Justice of the Irish Free State. In 1961, under the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act of that year, and the power to appoint notaries public became exercisable by the Chief Justice . This remains the position in the Republic of Ireland. In Northern Ireland, notaries public are appointed by the Lord Chief Justice.

The Notary in England

The office of the notary public did not attain the position of importance in England that it did in most of Europe. The reasons can be found in the economic conditions and the state of the law during the Middle Ages and the Reformation that followed.

England had notaries during the Middle Ages. Documentary evidence shows notaries were practicing there during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1043-1066 A.D.), and they were well known during the reign of Edward II (1307-27 A.D.). Notaries were needed for the ecclesiastical courts and commercial transactions involving foreign countries. The imperial and papal notaries who filled these needs sometimes irritated the English kings. For example, in 1320 Edward II issued two writs prohibiting imperial notaries from practicing in England and denying credit to their work.

The law did not require deeds and other instruments in common use to be prepared or attested by professional experts. Since most of the commerce was in foreign hands, the medieval common law did not need or recognize notaries. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, England began to handle much of its foreign commerce, so notaries were required to draw up different kinds of instruments. However, the notarial system as it was known under the Romans never really caught on.

The Reformation began in England with King Henry VIII’s revolt against the Pope. Henry VIII, a devout Catholic, had a dispute with the Pope regarding his marital status. As a result, he demanded that Parliament enact a law giving him the right to appoint bishops in England without the Pope’s permission. He immediately installed a puppet Archbishop of Canterbury who solved Henry’s problem by declaring his marriage to Anne Boleyn valid. The Pope claimed Henry was still married to Catherine of Aragon and excommunicated him. Henry retaliated in 1534 by having Parliament enact a law making him the head of the Church of England and giving him the exclusive right to make appointments, including appointing notaries. Parliament created a Court of Faculties, attached to the Archbishop of Canterbury and empowered to delegate notaries.

The Reformation reduced the ecclesiastical law to a subordinate position. During the seventeenth century, common law became the supreme body of law in England, so the office of notary public, an official of the ecclesiastical and civil law, became less important. In just a little over a hundred years after Henry VIII severed the ties with Rome, some 60,000 settlers left England to find a new life in the New World. Twenty thousand settled in New England, and the rest in Maryland, Virginia, and Bermuda.

The settlers brought with them the common law of England, including the office of notary public. We can get an idea of the nature of the office in the early 1700’s from this description: “We call him a notary public, who confirms and attests the truth of any deeds or writings, in order to render the same more credible and authentic in any country whatsoever. And he is principally made use of in courts of judicature and in business relating to merchants. For a notary public is a certain kind of witness, and therefore, ought to give evidence touching such things as fall under his corporeal senses, and not of such matters as fall under the judgement of understanding.”

The Notary in America

The office of notary public did not develop in America as it did in Europe. This was because the colonists adopted the common law of England where the office never took deep roots as it did in other countries. The State of Louisiana is an exception. Louisiana was settled by the French (whose legal system is based on the Roman law), and the functions of notaries are more extensive.

Early colonial charters and state constitutions did not mention the office of notary public. There was no need to. The office was a part of the accepted rules the colonists brought with them. Common law and the customs and rules recognized among merchants also defined the duties of the office.

The Colony of New Haven (Connecticut) appointed the first notary public in America in 1639. During the seventeenth century, Massachusetts, New Amsterdam (New York), and Virginia appointed notaries. Legislatures appointed the first notaries. Later the Governors, as chief executives, assumed the right to appoint notaries. In 1720, the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a notary in Boston, but the notary was forbidden to practice by the Massachusetts Legislature.

Egypt

"A scribe's duties ranged from writing letters for townspeople, to recording
harvests, to keeping accounts for the Egyptian army.

Everything had to be noted down, from the number of bags of grain harvested
to the building supplies, work attendance, paid wages and gifts that followed
the deceased into the next world or were daily sacrificed in his honor by the
funerary priests."

Greece

The Greek word, hy-po'sta-sis, is used in the Bible book of Hebrews 11:1 and has been translated in various ways: “Faith is the assurance" (ESV), “Faith is the assured expectation (NWT)” “Faith is the title deed” (Moulton and Milligan)

"The word hy-po'sta-sis, translated "assurance" above, commonly appears in ancient papyrus business documents, conveying the idea that a covenant is an exchange of assurances which guarantees the future transfer of possessions described in the contract."

Moulton and Milligan: Report its use as a legal term, “the whole body of documents bearing on the ownership of a person’s property, deposited in archives, and forming the evidence of ownership.” They suggest the translation, “Faith is the title-deed of things hoped for.”

Rome

The history of Notaries is set out in detail in Chapter 1 of Brooke's Notary (12th edition): "The office of a public notary is a public office. It has a long and distinguished history. The office has its origin in the civil institutions of ancient Rome. Public officials, called scribae, that is to say, scribes, rose in rank from being mere copiers and transcribers to a learned profession prominent in private and public affairs. Some were permanent officials attached to the Senate and courts of law whose duties were to record public proceedings, transcribe state papers, supply magistrates with legal forms, and register the decrees and judgments of magistrates."

"In the last century of the Republic, probably in the time of Cicero a new form of shorthand was invented and certain arbitrary marks and signs, called notae, were substituted for words in common use. A writer who adopted the new method was called a notarius. Originally, a notary was one who took down statements in shorthand and wrote them out in the form of memoranda or minutes. Later, the title notarius was applied almost exclusively to registrars attached to high government officials, including provincial governors and secretaries to the Emperor."

The Roman Empire to the Middle Ages

The history of the office of notary public is closely related to the history of the Roman Empire and the early Catholic Church. The Romans developed the office and used it in the lands they dominated. The Church established its own system of notaries and, because of its position in civil affairs following the decline of the Roman Empire, influenced the development of the office.

The word “notary” comes from the Latin word “nota,” a system of shorthand developed by M. Tullius Tiro (103-3 B.C.), the clerk of Cicero. Tiro used nota to take down Cicero’s speeches. People employed to receive instructions for the drafting of agreements, conveyances, and other types of instruments adopted this method of writing, and the term “notarius” was used to describe them.

These notarii became semi-officials during the early days of the Roman Empire. Their number grew and their influence increased as the empire expanded. They were also known as scriba, cursor, tabularius, tabellio, exceptor, acuarius, and notarius, depending on the time in which they lived and the duties that they performed. Over time, they formed themselves into a sort of guild or company, and the government undertook a limited amount of supervision and regulation, such as fixing the fees they could charge.

Notarii were officers of the Catholic Church from a very early time. Clement, the fourth Pope, appointed seven men who were stationed in various parts of Rome to describe the acts of any martyrs in their appointed area. Later, the Church claimed international jurisdiction and declared that papal notaries could act in any country.

The Roman Empire reached its zenith during the period 96-180 A.D., during which time it united 45 provinces containing more than 75 million people. Their empire encompassed Spain, Britain, Central Europe, and all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The principal Roman influences on these conquered lands were their systems of law and government. The value of the office of the notary was apparent, and the use of the office spread throughout the empire.

The Roman Empire started to decline near the end of the second century, and by the year 500, the collapse was complete. During the turmoil that followed, the Pope took the place of the Roman Emperors, and the Church took over many functions the government had neglected.

During the eighth century, the Holy Roman Empire was created in Central Europe. In the year 803, the Emperor Charlemagne directed his deputies to nominate notaries throughout the empire, and in 805, he required all bishops, abbots, and counts to have their own notaries. The emperor invested the acts of these notaries with public authority. Charlemagne and the German emperors who followed him claimed all the authority that had belonged to the Roman emperors, including the authority to appoint notaries. The emperors declared that these imperial notaries could exercise their duties in any country ever subjected to the Roman Empire, even if the country was independent.

WHAT IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS ARE REQUIRED?

We are obliged to obtain identification and will require:-

1. Passport,

or

2. Driving Licence (or other acceptable form of photo i.d.)

and

3. a Recent utility bill (within 3 months with your name and current address).

These will be copied and retained on file for five years.

Anti-Money Laundering Measures

The Code of Conduct for Notaries Public in Ireland obliges Notaries, as a matter of good practice, to establish the identity of all persons appearing before them to conduct notarial business. This duty is made a statutory obligation for Solicitors and Notaries under legislation enacted to outlaw money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. Furthermore, measures to prevent money-laundering and report suspicious transactions are imposed under the Criminal Justice Act 1994 and EU Directives 91/308/EC 2001/97/EC and 2005/60/EC.