Charta
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
In old English law
A charter or deed; an instrument written and sealed; the formal evidence of conveyances and contracts. Also any signal or token by which an estate was held. The term came te be applied, by way of eminence, to such documents as procerded from the sovereign, granting liberties or privileges, and either where the recipient of the grant was the whole nation, as in thecase of Magna Charta, or a public body, or private individual, in which ease it corresponded to the modern word “charter.” In the civillaw. Paper, suitable for the inscription of documents or books; hence, any instrument or writing.
See Dig. 32, 52, 6; Noy. 44, 2.