Notary Public Services

The Town Clerk's office provides Notary services as a courtesy and free of charge. Residents seeking Notary Services should call the Town Clerk's office prior to their visit to ensure that the Notary is available.

A Notary does not view the documents and its contents, or give legal advice; they simply witness a signature. A Notary can generally be found at your bank and at Law Offices.

The following guidelines will be followed in the provision of Notary Service (Chapter 222, as amended by Chapter 289 of the Acts of 2016-Effective January 4, 2017):

• All signers must be present at the time of notarizing.
• A valid, government-issued photo identification is required of any customer seeking Notary Service Notary Services are available during the normal business hours
• The complete document must be presented, not just the signature page
• The document(s) cannot already have been signed nor dated.
• The Notary is stating they have witnessed the document being signed
• The Notary DOES NOT provide witness signatures, if your document requires a witness(s), they must accompany you.
• The document must contain the appropriate Notarial Statement or Clause, or one will be stamped on the document or attached by the Notary.
• Types of Notary: Jurat (statements are true) or Acknowledgement (ones free act) in which the certificates must contain the oath given by the Notary to identify the type of notary act
• Documents in any language other than English will not be notarized at this facility
• Notary Service is not available for Deeds, Mortgages, Wills, Living Wills, Living Trusts, Codicils or Depositions.
• Certain public documents cannot be copied and notarized. Examples of these are birth, marriage and death certificates.
• Massachusetts Law requires that a Notary and the person seeking notarization be able to communicate directly with each other. The Notary is not permitted to make use of a translator to communicate with a Notary Service customer.
• The Notary must be in the office and available at the time. There are times that are not convenient for Notary Services to be provided and you may be asked to come back.
• In accordance with Massachusetts Notarial Law, Notaries will not provide service if the customer, document or circumstances of the request for Notary Service raise any issue of authenticity, ambiguity, doubt or uncertainty. In this event, the Notary may, at his/her sole discretion, decline to provide Notary Service.