My birthday was last week and with its passing, another era of my life concluded because for the first time since 1990, I’m no longer a member of the notary public.
While working as an examiner for a small Title Insurance agency in Traverse City, I was offered the upgrade job of Closing Agent. The promotion required that I become “notarized,” a word that I can never say without mentally adding … “help me, help me, I’ve been NOTARIZED!” (Silly, I know, but spend 40 years examining records, explaining documents, and walking strangers through the ever-complicated real estate closing process and you’ll come out of it muttering more than just those seven words.)
It’s actually a pretty important job and has been for thousands of years. According to information found on the website nationalnotary.org, the first notaries were Egyptian scribes about 2000 B.C. Among the earliest chroniclers of communication, King Tut supposedly took one with him in his tomb for doing the same task in the afterlife.
The Romans, during the 6th century, began using the term “notarius” for those drafting contracts, wills, and other important documents.
From there, as literacy, commerce, and populations improved and expanded, the role of the notary did as well. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the country of England, began using notaries which were first appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. As the church became less and less a part of commerce, local towns began appointing them. Interestingly, notaries accompanied many explorers. King Ferdinand, suspicious of whatever Christopher Columbus was looking for, sent one with him on each of his sojourns to the new world.
In colonial times, notaries at each end of the Europe/America trade route verified cargos for content and quality of shipments. As the battle for control over this new era of world trade was waged, notaries authenticating and recording transactions were often prime targets of those trying to game that system. I was never physically harmed but on more than one occasion my insistence upon authentic and verified identification stopped the execution of documents. As long as there is a system, there will be those that try to get around it and those employed to stop them.
And, as usual, you show me an important job and I’ll tell you that women weren’t allowed to do it in this country until the 20th century. Typically though, like most other important positions, two thirds of America’s over 4 million notaries are now women.
Being a notary just came with the job. Like keeping a valid driver’s license, renewing one’s notary license was just another cost of doing business. No test, no course study, and no appointment by the closest Archbishop or King of Spain. Just fill out an application and cut a check; you too could be a trusted member of the notary public.
Our little Title Insurance office conducted hundreds of closings while I owned it. One day, as I walked through the closing room late in the day, I noticed that as the afternoon sun played across the wooden table I could see dents in the finish. As I looked closer, I saw hundreds of versions of my signature pressed into the table covering a piece of paper-sized area where I always sat. Over and over, parts of my signature, various dates, and myriad other things that had been written were there to stay. We sold the company a few years later and if I’d thought things through, I would have added a form including the table in the sale. And don’t worry, it would have been notarized.