The Evolution of Notary Laws
in Massachusetts: A Historical Perspective.

Massachusetts Bay Colony appointed its earliest notaries by gubernatorial commission as early as the 1630s — among the first formal notarial appointments in North America. These early notaries served alongside magistrates and registrars and focused heavily on three areas: maritime protests (formally documenting cargo damage or disputes at sea, crucial for merchant shipping), land conveyance (documenting deed transfers in an era when land title disputes were constant), and foreign correspondence (certifying signatures on documents sent abroad for commercial transactions).

The position was not democratized in this era — notaries were typically high-ranking legal professionals or court officers. Records were handwritten in bound court archives, and oaths were administered before judges. The role carried significant authority precisely because very few people held it.

The Puritan legal culture of the Massachusetts Bay Colony placed exceptional weight on formal documentation. Disputed title, contested contracts and inheritance conflicts were among the most common legal proceedings of the era — and the notary’s certification was one of the few forms of documentary evidence that courts treated as presumptively reliable.

The American Revolution required Massachusetts to reconstruct its legal institutions from scratch. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 — drafted primarily by John Adams and still the oldest functioning written state constitution in the world — established the executive branch structure that governs notary commissions today. The governor, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, holds commissioning authority for notaries public under the Massachusetts Constitution.

This constitutional structure distinguished Massachusetts from many other states and established the formal commission process that applicants still follow today — application to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, oath of office, issuance of commission, and bonding. The transition from colonial appointee to constitutional officer was not merely formal; it brought notaries within a framework of public accountability that did not exist under the colonial governor’s private authority.

The early Commonwealth period also saw the emergence of notary services for a growing commercial and immigrant population. Boston’s rise as a major port city created demand for maritime notarizations, foreign correspondence certifications and increasingly complex commercial documentation.

The 19th century transformed Massachusetts from a commercial-maritime colony into the industrial and intellectual center of New England. This transformation drove significant changes in notarial practice. Massachusetts codified its notary provisions in the General Statutes as the legal system required greater consistency and accessibility. The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s role in commissioning notaries was formalized, and the process was opened to professionals outside the legal field for the first time.

The waves of immigration into Massachusetts — Irish, Italian, Eastern European and others — created new demand for notarized documents in foreign-language declarations, name change proceedings, immigration affidavits and naturalization support documents. The Merrimack Valley, including Lowell and Lawrence, became major industrial cities drawing immigrant workers who needed notarial services for documents linking them to home countries, establishing local legal identity and entering commercial relationships.

The expansion of the real estate market — as manufacturing communities built worker housing and commercial districts — drove demand for deed notarization, mortgage witnessing and title-related documentation at a scale the colonial-era notarial system could never have supported.

The 20th century brought increased legislative attention to notarial fraud — documents notarized without the signer’s presence, false certifications and identity substitution. Massachusetts responded with a series of regulatory requirements that built the professional framework still recognizable today.

Key developments of this era included the formalization of journal-keeping requirements (notaries began to be required to maintain written records of every notarial act), the establishment of personal appearance requirements (the signer must be physically present before the notary at the time of signing), and the codification of identification standards (the notary must satisfy themselves of the signer’s identity through personal knowledge or reliable documents).

The distinction between notarial act types — acknowledgment, jurat, copy certification, oath administration — became more clearly defined in Massachusetts practice during this period, as courts increasingly relied on notarial certifications in complex litigation and estate proceedings. The attorney-closing requirement for Massachusetts real estate transactions also solidified in practice during this era, establishing the framework that Executive Order 455 and M.G.L. c. 222 §17 later codified explicitly.

The late 20th and early 21st centuries transformed the market for notary services without fundamentally changing the underlying law — that would come with the 2017 overhaul. Three developments defined this era: the rise of the mobile notary, the emergence of the NNA Certified Signing Agent, and the increasing importance of apostille processing for international documents.

The mobile notary model — in which the notary travels to the signer rather than requiring the signer to travel to the notary — became standard in the real estate industry as loan package complexity increased and closings moved to after-hours and off-site settings. The National Notary Association began offering the Certified Signing Agent designation, which became the industry standard for notaries handling mortgage closings despite having no formal status in Massachusetts law.

The Hague Apostille Convention, which the United States joined in 1981, created new notary obligations around international document authentication. Massachusetts notarizations destined for foreign countries now required formatting that would survive the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s apostille review — an entirely new dimension of notarial practice. The Merrimack Valley’s large immigrant communities, with ties to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe, drove significant demand for apostille-compatible notarizations.

The 2017 comprehensive revision of M.G.L. c. 222 was the most significant update to Massachusetts notary law in the modern era. Drawing on elements of the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), the 2017 act modernized the statutory framework while preserving the core legal principles that had governed Massachusetts notary practice for over a century.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 created an unprecedented challenge for a profession built on physical presence. Massachusetts Governor Baker issued Emergency Order No. 591 authorizing temporary remote notarization for the duration of the public health emergency — making Massachusetts one of the states that moved quickly to protect access to essential legal services during lockdown. The temporary authorization expired when the state of emergency ended.

What followed was a multi-year legislative process to determine whether and how to permanently authorize RON. That process concluded in 2023.