Printer's error for sure.
Perhaps a gangly teenage printer's apprentice dreaming about a girl he sees in church and not paying close enough attention? Or maybe the master printer himself, over 40 and bereft of bifocals to help him navigate his away among the confoundingly tiny lead letters in his shop? And, of course, if he had a few swigs of rye whiskey that morning his vision would have been even more impaired.
My guess is a a large stack was printed before the error was discovered (and possibly the clerk was supposed to write over the "E" and make it an "L" but just forgot).
You could compare the same form from that jurisdiction in prior and subsequent years to isolate when the error occurred and to see if one of the clerks marked out the error manually in other instances.
Thomas Katheder
lawyer/historian
---- John Philip Adams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Could this have been a "WITNESS" signature or someone who was acting as a
> surety? Latin and Legal terms are not a strong suit.
> JPAdams
> Texas
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Kilby
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:02 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: E.S. vs L.S. after a signature?
>
> Good morning James or Douglas (what is your correct name?)
>
> I am the researcher who obtained the marriage bond for Joan Horsley. It
> does, indeed, have the letters "E. S." for the security. I vote for
> "printer's error" here, as I have never seen this before. But then again,
> we can always learn something new. I believe it should read "L. S." as in
> all other documents, but who knows?
>
> Thanks for you reply. You have covered the basics here and for that I thank
> you.
>
> Craig Kilby
>
> On Jan 25, 2010, at 8:36 AM, James Burnett wrote:
>
> > Good Morning Joan
> > Hopefully negative info can be useful also. I looked this up in Black's
> Law
> > Dictionary, Third Edition, and while L.S. is there E.S. is not. I also
> did
> > not find it in Paul Drake's book "What did They Mean By That", 2003
> version.
> >
> > Douglas Burnett
> > Satellite Beach
> > FL
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 2:06 PM, Joan Horsley <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Can anyone tell me what "E.S." stands for after a signature? I know that
> >> "L.S." is for locus sigilli or legal seal, but I've never seen the "E.S."
> >> and cannot find what it might mean.
> >>
> >> This "E.S." appears on a pre-printed marriage bond for Monroe County
> >> (VA/WV) dated 27 Dec 1819. This printed form has blanks to be filled in
> by
> >> hand with the names of the two persons held to the bond, the current
> >> governor. the man and woman to be married, plus the date.
> >>
> >> At the signature space, the first signature (the groom's) is followed by
> >> the standard "L.S.", which is also pre-printed on the form. The second
> >> signature (the security) is followed by the letters "E.S.", again
> >> pre-printed. (Both names are signed by signature, not mark, and this
> >> document appears to have the original signatures, not a clerk's copy.)
> >>
> >> Does the "E.S." really stand for something, or could this be a printer's
> >> error?
> >>
> >> Thank you,
> >> Joan Horsley
> >>
> >> ______________________________________
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> >>
> >
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