John Doe ... hmmm
Posted by Silver Surfer on January 03, 2003
In Reply to: John Doe ... hmmm posted by TheFallen on January 03, 2003
: : : Who was John Doe and why does this now mean an un-named American?
: : I found the following on a web site and closed it before I could save it to check for authenticity:
:
: "John Doe had its beginnings in legal use. From the 15th century to the 19th,
John Doe was, in
: : England, a legal fiction standing specifically for the
plaintiff in a dispute over title to
: : real property. Richard Roe was the
name given to the defendant. In order to
: : avoid dealing with the rigid restrictions
legally imposed on such matters in English
: : common law, someone who wanted
to regain possession of land from which he
: : had unjustly been evicted would
bring a different kind of action--an "ejectment"
: : suit--in the name of John
Doe, his fictional tenant.
: : By bringing the suit in the name of a fictitious
person, who could not deny anything
: : that was said, the landowner was often
able to oust the usurper and recover his
: : land legally. Supposedly, the
fictional defendant was a traveler who, while passing
: : by, just happened
to toss the mythical tenant off the property before going on his
: : way. The
chances for victory by the rightful owner were enhanced when the
: : accused
Richard Roe did not, for some reason, appear at the proceedings in
: : order
to defend himself. And the actual person who wrongfully had possession of
:
: the owner's land simply had no legal standing in the suit.
: : These particular
suits were no longer necessary after the 1852 passage of the
: : Common Law
Procedure Act, which eased the previous restrictions. But by then
: : the legal
fictions John Doe and Richard Roe had become conventionalized, and
: : they
are now used frequently in both English and American law. Current use is
:
: quite a bit looser, however. John Doe, Jane Doe, Richard Roe, Jane Roe,
:
: or--if need be--Peter Poe, are, according to Random House Webster's Pocket
:
: Legal Dictionary, used in legal cases and documents, "either to conceal a
:
: person's identity, or because the person's real name is not known, or because
it is
: : not yet known whether the person exists."
: : We can say, then,
that the John Doe of early legal use was always fictitious; the
: : John Doe
of current legal use is sometimes a fiction but more often a real person;
:
: and the John Doe of extended metaphorical use, 'an anonymous, average man',
is
: : a generic--once again not real.
: : But back to origins. The choice
of John is easy enough to understand. It was the
: : second most popular name
in England even earlier than the 15th century (William
: : took first place).
John is used even today as a generic reference (John Barleycorn,
: : John Q.
Public, etc.) The need for a common, well-known fictional name in matters
:
: of law is reflected in early Roman legal proceedings, in which the fictitious
persons
: : included Gaius, Titius, and Seius.
: : Doe is harder to track
down. It does not appear in lists of early inheritable
: : surnames in England.
Nor does it seem to come from the usual "bynames" that
: : were in use in the
Middle Ages--those names that you did not inherit from your
: : father but
acquired yourself. Bynames were derived from either a parent's name
: : (Peterson),
your location (Underhill), your occupation (Smith), or some nickname
: : (Wiseman).
Feverish research has yielded nothing; no "Doe." So I'm stumped, too!
: : I
can only speculate that Doe and Roe were convenient nonsense names, chosen
:
: because they were short and easy to remember. And they rhymed. On the other
:
: hand, there are a few putatively real Doe's and Roe's listed in modern phone
:
: books. Of course, some of them are named "John" or "Richard" or "Jane."
: I'm mildly suspicious of the above, only because I've only ever come across the usage of John Doe in American English, and have neither heard nor read it used "natively" over here. If the term was standard legal teminology for 400 years plus in English law, it's a mite surprising that it should have entirely died out over here, but flourished kappily in the US - though I suppose it's possible.
: Over here in the UK, we're much more likely to refer to an anonymous individual as John Smith, or more colloquially, Joe Bloggs - don't ask me why.
I've searched through many English legal documents from all ages and have never come across this usage. I have, however, found the URL from which the above explanation has been pasted, viz. www.pseudoe.de/johndoe.htm. I think we have here a little Internet joke to fool the unwary.
- John Doe ... from
the archives ESC 01/03/03
- John Doe - not the Magna Carta TheFallen
01/04/03
- John Doe - not the Magna Carta John Doe 02/03/03
- John Doe - not the Magna Carta TheFallen
01/04/03