Chancellor, LORD. It is usually said that the existence of the office in England, as in the other states of Europe, is to be ascribed to the influence which the constitution of the Roman empire had on the constitutions of the modern nations. This influence was exercised in no small measure through the medium of the church, the profession of the law being generally exercised by ecclesiastics; and it is for this reason, probably, that the bishop and the king are furnished with officers bearing the same title, and exercising analogous functions. Soon after the Norman Conquest the English chancellor became a judicial officer of high rank (see CHANCERY), and a confidential adviser of the sovereign in state affairs. Being charged with the supervision of charters and other instruments, he obtained the custody of the great seal. The office of chancellor, or Keeper (q.v.), which in 1576 was declared to be exactly the same, is created without writ or patent, by the mere delivery of the great seal. The chancellor, if a baron, takes precedence of every temporal lord not a member of the royal family, and of all bishops except the Archbishop of Canterbury. To slay the chancellor is treason. The chancellor is a privy-councillor by his office, and prolocutor, or speaker of the House of Lords, by prescription. Though the form in which his tenure of office is terminated is by the resumption of the great seal by the sovereign, the chancellor is now always a cabinet minister, and resigns office with the party to which he is attached. He has the appointment of all justices of the peace throughout the kingdom, but this privilege he exercises generally on the recommendation of the lord-lieutenants. But the most important, and, as it now seems, somewhat anomalous branch of his patronage, arises out of his having been originally an ecclesiastic. Though the last bishop who held the office was John Williams, Archbishop of York, who was Lord Keeper from 1621 to 1625, the chancellor still continues to be patron of a large number of crown livings (though in 1863 about 300 were sold to augment the incomes of those sold and those retained), and visitor of all hospitals and colleges of the king's foundation. As representing the paternal character of the sovereign, again, the chancellor is the general protector of all infants, idiots, and lunatics, and has the supervision of all charitable uses in the kingdom. His jurisdiction 'in lunacy' is committed to him by special delegation from the sovereign. As regards his judicial patronage, the arrangement is, that the chancellor appoints in general all the judges of the superior courts, except the chief-justice, who is nominated by the prime-minister of the day. He also appoints the judges of the county courts, and various subordinate officers. All these functions the chancellor performs in addition to his extensive duties as a judge in the House of Lords, the Privy-council, the Court of Appeal, and the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. Objection has often been taken to the combination of judicial and political offices in the same person, but the proposal to appoint a minister of justice has not yet found favour. The salary of the chancellor is £10,000 a year, and he has an annuity of £5000 on retiring from office.
Among the notable Lord Chancellors of England have been Cardinal Wolsey (1515), Sir Thomas
More (1529), Bishop Gardiner (1553), Sir Francis Bacon (1617), Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1660), Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury (1672), Lords Jeffreys (1685), Hardwicke (1737), Thurlow (1778), Eldon (1801, 1807), Erskine (1806), Lyndhurst (1827, 1834, 1841), Brougham (1830), Cranworth (1852, 1865), Chelmsford (1858, 1866), Campbell (1859), Westbury (1861), Cairns (1868, 1874), Hatherley (1868), Selborne (1872, 1880), Halsbury (1885, 1886), Herschell (1886, 1892). See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors (1845-47).
The office of Chancellor of Scotland, which was analogous to that of England, was abolished at the Union, a keeper of the Great Seal (q.v.) being appointed. The English chancellor is described as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland; but in Scotland he has scarcely any jurisdiction, and in Ireland there is a separate chancellor, whose powers and duties are similar to those of the English chancellor.