Joseph Story

“ We think it clear, that by the common law as held for a long period, an exemplification of a public grant under the great seal, is admissible in evidence, as being record proof of as high a nature as the original. ”

“ As evidence, such exemplifications of letters patent seem to have been generally deemed admissible. But where, in pleading, a profert was made of the letters patent, there, upon the principles of pleading, the original under the great seal was required to be produced: for a profert could not be of any copy or exemplification. ”

“ The bill of exceptions states that the plaintiff offered in evidence, in support of his title, an exemplification, under the seal of the state of Georgia, of a grant or patent to Basil Jones, of a tract of seven thousand three hundred acres of land, dated the 24th of May 1787, and registered the 5th of June of the same year, in the registry of grants in the secretary of state's office. The defendants objected that the exemplification could not be received, until the original patent was proved to be lost or destroyed, or the non-production thereof otherwise legally explained or accounted for ”