Aldermen and one notary public

In Maastricht that was subject to two feudal lords there were separate aldermen's courts for both subjects of the Empire and subjects of the bishop. Each court consisted of a bailiff who acted as a kind of public prosecutor and seven aldermen who administered justice in criminal cases and in disputes between citizens. It is assumed that this aldermen´s jurisdiction in Maastricht originated during the 12th century.

At first, the task of aldermen was limited to justice only. From the middle of the 13th century, aldermen also began to act as witnesses in the oral transfer of property. The archives of the chapter of St. Servaas include a number of charters from 1257 onwards with Maastricht aldermen in that role.

From the middle of the 14th century, the bench of aldermen increasingly became the body before which parties could (voluntarily) record transactions over real property. Initially the charters drawn up for this purpose were only issued to parties, but later it became customary to register them at the aldermen's court as well. This promoted legal certainty. In Maastricht this registration has been preserved since the beginning of the 15th century.

Notaries public initially played no role in the registration of real estate. In Maastricht this only changed at the end of the 16th century. Then it became customary to first go to a notary public and then have the deed drawn up by him registered at one of the aldermen's courts. Notarisation in northwestern Europe had a very different history. From the middle of the 13th century notaries public performed clerical work, especially in higher ecclesiastical circles, drafting or copying judicial documents. Similarly, the chapter of St. Servaas employed one and or more notaries public. At the end of the 13th century these notaries public, endowed with imperial and papal appointments, began to offer more and more public services for the preparation of reliable deeds, such as wills. Unlike aldermen who ratified their charters with a seal, notaries public in the Middle Ages "signed" their deeds with a "signet" or mark, a kind of complicated logo.

Also among the charters of the chapter of St. Servaas before 1300 is a notarial charter dated 16 August 1292, written and signed by notary public Lambert of Maastricht, named of St. Hilarius (charter no. 72). With this dating the document is five months younger than a Utrecht notarial charter dated 25 March 1292, which is considered the oldest charter of a notary public in the Netherlands.

The Maastricht charter concerns an agreement between the chapter of St. Servaas and Udo, priest of Heer, about the tithe right in this place. The chapter had traditionally been entitled to tithes there, a tax on the proceeds of certain plots of land. The dispute to be resolved concerned the question of who was now entitled to the novel tithes, the tax on newly reclaimed land, in addition to the old tithes.