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31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 971 (1997-1998)
The National Notary Association: A Historical Profile

handle is hein.journals/jmlr31 and id is 981 raw text is: THE NATIONAL NOTARY ASSOCIATION: A HISTORICAL PROFILE MILTON G. VALERA* I. THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN NOTARY In perhaps his most famous and trenchant observation about the American people, the French social analyst Alexis de Toc- queville commented in 1840' that Americans are inveterate joiners and, whenever two or more are randomly thrown together, they are more likely than not to discover a mutual interest and start an organization. Considering the keenness of de Tocqueville's insight, it is remarkable that 318 years passed between the appointment of the first common law notary public in the American colonies and the launching of what would become the first national organiza- tion of English-speaking American notaries. After Thomas Fugill of the New Haven Colony was chosen publique notary to attend the court on October 25, 1639, and, nearly seven weeks earlier, Steven Winthrope of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony was chosen to record things on September 9,2 it was not until 1957, when a native Californian named Raymond Clarence Rothman formed a unique educational association that a lasting national organization of U.S. notaries was established. There is no mystery why Fugill, Winthrope and notaries from the other English colonies never convened in one place to discuss their mutual notarial interests. Primitive and sporadic communi- cation and transportation systems prevented inter-colonial asso- ciations of almost any kind. The professional, fraternal and avoca- tional groups that de Tocqueville observed and that arose in the late Colonial period and in the early days of our republic were vir- tually always restricted to a town, a city, a region or, more rarely, * Milton G. Valera has been the President of the National Notary Asso- ciation since 1982. He was with the organization since 1969 as Vice Presi- dent, Executive Director and close collaborator with founder Raymond C. Rothman. Valera holds a B.A. in Journalism from California State Univer- sity, Northridge. 1. See ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 114-15 (Phillips Bradley ed., 5th ed. Vintage Books 1954) (addressing whether there is a nec- essary connection between the principle of association and equality). 2. The American Notary: Celebrating A 350-Year Heritage, NAT'L NOTARY MAG., Nov. 1989, at 10 - 12.

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