10 Fun Facts About Notaries

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• Learn all the fun facts about notaries throughout history

Scribes that Notarize: In ancient Egypt, “scribes” or “sesh” were the earliest known chroniclers of official communications in recorded history with personal letters, official proclamations, tax records, and other important documents all going through them. 

Do As The Romans Do: The true ancestors of Notaries come from the Roman Empire, with history’s first Notary being a Roman named Tiro. He developed a shorthand system, which he called notae, for taking down the speeches of the famed orator Cicero. 

Few More Notaries Today: There are currently over 4.5 Million Notary Publics in the United States with over 1 billion notarizations completed each year! 

Holy Notary: Notary publics were once church officials appointed by the Pope. 

Notary Private: In the Middle Ages, Notaries were sometimes asked to be witness to the consummation of marriages involving royalty or members of the peerage.

Land No’tary!: Notaries joined Christopher Columbus on all of his voyages, as well as all early Spanish explorers, to ensure all discovered treasures were accounted for. 

Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash

Signature Pro: Thomas McKean, the last person to sign the Declaration of Independence, was also a Notary Public. 

Cereal Notary: To allow legendary baseball player Pete Rose to appear on the cover of the famous Wheaties box, executives of the company made Rose sign and swear in the presence of a Notary that he’d eaten the cereal ever since he was a kid. 

Photo by Nyana Stoica on Unsplash

Who Runs The Notary World: While more than two-thirds of American Notaries today are women, it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that women were even allowed to be Notaries. 

Not Your Average Notary: William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Jennifer Lopez, and Dwight Shrute are some of the most famous Notaries!