Chancery, the office of a chancellor or ambassador; a place in which writs, &c. are prepared and formally recorded. In England the Chancery was in early times the office in which writs and forms of process were prepared; some of these forms being kept in the Hanaper or hamper, and some in the Petty Bag. When the chancellor became a judicial officer of the first rank, the COURT OF CHANCERY exercised a very wide jurisdiction. The court could not maintain its hold on criminal cases, or on civil cases in which the common-law courts could do adequate justice; but the equitable jurisdiction of the court was established, after a keen struggle with the common lawyers. The assistance of the chancellor, as 'keeper of the king's conscience,' was invoked in cases where the common law might work injustice. A trustee, for example, was in law the owner of the trust property, but the Court of Chancery, which acted in personam, would compel him to render an account of his trust to the beneficial owner. This power to enforce equitable claims gave the court an administrative jurisdiction which was used for the protection of infants, married women, mortgagors, &c. The prejudice of the common lawyers against the court was due to the fact that its extensive powers were exercised at the discretion of the chancellor, and not according to settled rules. So late as the time of Charles II., Shaftesbury was thought to be a good chancellor, though he was not a lawyer. A succession of eminent chancellors, from Lord Nottingham to Lord Eldon, developed the rules of equity into a logical system. They did so, it must be admitted, at the expense of unfortunate suitors; and the Court of Chancery became a byword for delay and expense. Some of the evils satirised, and somewhat exaggerated, by Dickens in Bleak House (1853) have been removed by modern legislation.
The judges of the Court of Chancery were the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls (originally a subordinate officer, but afterwards an independent judge), a Vice-chancellor added in 1813, and two more Vice-chancellors added in 1841, when the equity business of the Court of Exchequer was transferred. Two Lords Justices of Appeal were added in 1851. On the passing of the Judicature Acts the inconvenient and indefensible distinction between courts of equity and law was abolished, and the judges of the Court of Chancery became members of the Court of Appeal, or of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice.
Among the officers of the Court of Chancery were the MASTERS IN CHANCERY, whose office is now abolished, their duties being for the most part assigned to the chief-clerks in the Chancery Division. The office of Accountant-general is also abolished, and Her Majesty's Paymaster-general is charged with the duty of accounting for funds 'in Chancery'—i.e. for cash and stocks standing in the account of any cause or matter before the court. In 1886 there were 39,944 accounts open; the balance of stocks was £71,946,527; balance of cash, £3,931,054. In 1893 the total funds were £65,481,866. The dormant and unclaimed Chancery funds are only about £1,000,000, mostly in very small sums. Under an Act of 1872, unclaimed balances are transferred to the National Debt Commissioners, but the Consolidated Fund is liable in respect of any claim on these balances.
In various British colonies Courts of Chancery have been established, and the distinction between courts of law and equity has been preserved. But in the colonies and the United States, as in England, the 'fusion of law and equity' has been effected by legislation. The anomalies of the old system have been removed; but many of the distinctive doctrines and rules of the Court of Chancery remain. In several of the original thirteen states there are distinct Courts of Chancery, but in most of the United States equity powers have been conferred on the higher law-courts, and the principles of equity are administered therein. By the United States constitution and several Acts of Congress, equity powers commensurate with those of the Court of Chancery in England were conferred on the Federal Courts.
The CHANCERY OFFICE, in Scotland, is an office in the General Register House at Edinburgh, managed by a director, in which all royal charters of novodamns, patents of dignities, gifts of offices, remissions, legitimations, presentations, commissions, and other writs appointed to pass the Great and Quarter Seals, are recorded. Prior to 1874 a great number of royal charters by progress passed through this office; and this is still done with regard to precepts from Chancery in favour of heirs in crown holdings. It is the duty of the director to keep a record of the decrees of service pronounced in favour of heirs by the Sheriff of Chancery, who holds a special court in Edinburgh for considering such petitions, and to send printed indexes of his record to the sheriff-clerks in the various counties. The record kept by the director also includes the decrees of service pronounced in the different sheriff-courts, and of these the director is bound to furnish extracts. See SEAL.