v.to write the official, final, and formal copy of a documentKnafla 1984, 106The ancient dictum was that the records of a court engrossed on parchment identified that court as a court of record, and the distinguishing feature of all common law courts—be they King’s Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, or the Assizes—was that the engrossing of the records marked the judgments as those belonging to a court of record.Burns 1998, 176The final instrument was engrossed by a scrivener, that is, a professional scribe. When a document was a final version of an instrument prepared for the Great Seal, engrossing was normally undertaken at the Letters Patent Office or at the Crown Office.Ritzenthaler and Nicholson 2016On July 19, 1776, the Continental Congress ordered the Declaration of Independence to be engrossed—or written out in a large legible hand.NPS 2019On July 19, the Congress ordered the Declaration to be fairly engrossed (formally handwritten) on parchment and the title changed from A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled to The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. Timothy Matlack, assistant to Charles Thomson, engrossed the document. On August 2, 1776, most of the members of the Continental Congress assembled in Independence Hall and “the declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at the table was signed.”NARA 2022bOn July 19th, Congress ordered that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment with a new title, “the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America,” and “that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.” Engrossing is the process of copying an official document in a large hand. The engrosser of the Declaration was probably Timothy Matlock [sic], an assistant to Charles Thomson, secretary to the Congress.adj. engrossedof a document, the official, final, and formal copyGustafson 1976, 271In 1952 the Library of Congress transferred the original engrossed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the National Archives. Together with the Bill of Rights, they are the Charters of Freedom, the most precious documents in the National Archives of the United States.Knafla 1984, 116Lacking a professional administrative framework and engrossed rolls, the separate case files were more logically retained in dossiers of the respective cases.Petersen 2024When either house orders the third reading of a bill, it simultaneously orders the engrossment of the bill. In earlier times, such bills were handwritten in very large script, hence the term “engrossment.” In current practice, engrossment is the formal reprinting of the bill in the form upon which the chamber will vote final passage. Official, engrossed copies are prepared by staff in the Office of the Clerk of the House and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate.
