The Magna Carta is a fundamental document underpinning modern judiciary, especially civil rights issues. The British Library describes how passages of the Magna Carta reverberate onward in newer documents like the 1791 United States Bill of Rights, particularly the 39th clause guaranteeing all “free men” a fair and just trial. Part of that fairness required gathering a minimum of two “law-worthy and discreet men” to help in disputes related to property damage, as the Magna Carta itself says via the U.S. National Archives.
The passage in question describes inheritance from a landowner to an heir. In a nutshell, if someone comes into stewardship or guardianship of an heir’s land and ruins it, that person has to pay damages, and the land goes to two other people. If those people do the same, then they suffer the same punishment. If a guardian “should commit destruction or waste, we will take recompense from him and the land will be assigned to two law-worthy and discreet men of that fee who will answer to us or to the person to whom we assign such land for the land’s issues.”
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The Magna Carta doesn’t use the name “John Doe” specifically, but as The New York Times describes, the legalistic precedent it established carried onward over the following hundreds of years, particularly in property-based court cases pitting landlords against tenants. Plaintiffs in those cases — tenants — were dubbed “John Doe” to protect them from their landlords, who were interestingly dubbed “Richard Roe.”
