What does a Notary do?

Here I am going to cheat and borrow a definition from the standard text book. I must confess that practising in High Wycombe gives me very little opportunity to do anything with ships – but there are rowing boats on the lake in the Rye nearby and my chance might yet come.

"Generally speaking, a notary public in England may be described as an officer of the law appointed by the Court of Faculties whose public office and duty is to draw, attest or certify under his signature and official seal in such a manner as to render them acceptable, as proof of the matters attested by him, to the judicial or other public authorities in the country where they are to be used, whether by means of issuing a notarial certificate as to the due execution of such documents or by drawing them in the form of public instruments; to keep a protocol containing originals of all instruments which he makes in the public form and to issue authentic copies of such documents; to administer oaths and declarations for use in proceedings in England and elsewhere; to note and certify transactions relating to negotiable instruments, and to draw up protests or other formal papers relating to occurrences on the voyages of ships and their navigation as well as the carriage of cargo in ships.

(Taken from Brooke’s Notary)

Normally you are likely to have to appear before me together with a document that needs to be effective abroad. I can endorse the appropriate certificate on it so to give it sufficient force and authority.

The key thing to bear in mind is that a Notary can only certify to something he is sure about. If I certify that something is a true copy then I must be sure that it is and I will normally ensure this by photocopying the document myself.