Attest

To witness or testify; to bear witness to; to witness by observation and signature.

To witness the execution of a written insirument, at the request of him who makes it, and subscribe the same as a witness. This is also the technical word by which, in the practice in many of the states, a certifying officer gives assurance of the genuineness and correctness of a copy. An “attested” copy of a document is one which has been examined and compared with the original, with a certificate or memorandum of ifs correctness, signed by the persons who have examined it.

i To bear witness to: to signify, by subscription of his name, that the person has witnessed the execution of the particular instrument. Compare Sign; Subsceibe, 1. In its strict sense to witness or bear witness to. The principal object in requiring that an instrument shall be executed in the presence of witnesses is that they may see that the same is properly and fairly executed. But the ordinaiy use of the word, as applied to the execution of deeds, requires that ihe witnesses should attest in writing: the principal end of which seems to be to preserve evidence that the instrument was executed in the presence of the required witnesses.^ To "attest" the publication of a paper as a last will, and to " subscribe " to that paper the names of the witnesses, are different things. Attestation is the act of the senses; subscription, the act of the hand: the one is mental, the other mechanical. To " attest " a will is to know that it was published as such, and to certify the facts required to constitute an actual and legal publication; but to "subscribe" a paper published as a wiU is only to write on the same paper the names of the witnesses for the purpose of identification. There may be a perfect attestation in fact without subscription.3 An " attesting " witness, under the Statute of Wills, is one who at the time of attestation would be competent to testify in court to the matter.* The last requisite to the validity of a deed is the attestation or execution of it in the presence of witnesses; necessary rather for preserving the evidence than for constituting the essence of the deed,* The number of witnesses necessary to a valid will, and whether there shall be any at all to a deed, and the particular facts to which they must certify, vary in the different States. • See further Deed, 2; Presence; Will, 2; Witness. 2. To certify to the verity of a copy of a public document. Eeferring to judicial writings or copies thereof, as the copy of the record of a judicial process, seems to cure an abortion is not withm the act of 1868 of that State,^that the common-law rule was not altered by the act. Same case, 26 Am. Law Reg. Ml (1887); ib. 645-54, cases. See generally 17 Cent. Law J. 26-88, 45-50 (1883)

— Irish Law Times (1882). ■ L. attestari, to be a witness to. See Testis. » Wright V. 'Wakefield, 4 Taunt. *223 (1812), Mansfield, C. J. s [Swift V. Wiley, 1 B. Mon. 117 (Ky., 1840), Eobertfion, C. J. See also Be Downie's WUl, 42 Wis. 76 (1877); 49 Conn. 249: Webster. * [Jenkins v. Dawes, 115 Mass. 601 (1874), Gray, C. J.; S Kok. 350. » 2 Bl. Com. 307. See also Ladd v. Ladd, 8 How. 31-39 (1860), cases. intend an authentication by the clerk of the court so as to make them receivable as evidence.'

[Lat. attestari, from ad, to, and testari, to witness.] In practice and conveyancing. To witness or testify. Where it is provided that an instrument shall be attested, the term attest implies that a witness shall be present to testify that the party who is to execute the deed has done the act required. 9 M. <b W. 404.