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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: estiman on Friday 16 October 20 12:37 BST (UK)
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In 1861 what did Ward in Chancery mean for a 62 year old woman? Did it mean 'incapacitated'? Would she have a guardian appointed? Can records be viewed?
Thanks
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Chancery is very complicated, often regarding money due such as inheritance
etc.
People waited years for their cases to be heard ,Dickens wrote I think Nicholas Nicholby,to illustrate the great scandal .
Google it , people attended court day in day out so as not to miss their case,I think lawyers were on to a good thing
Hope you get some info that helps.
Viktoria,
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Infants and lunatics placed under the protection of the court were referred to as ‘wards of court’.
The Court of Chancery was an equity court, presided over by the Lord Chancellor and his deputies, as opposed to a common law court. The court was used by all walks of life, from labourers and bricklayers to peers of the realm. People turned to the court because it promised a merciful justice not bound by the strict rules of the common law courts (which included, for example, the Court of King’s Bench) and were therefore able to hear more complicated problems.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/chancery-equity-suits-after-1558/#2-what-was-the-court-of-chancery
Stan
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Yes, I associated it with financial issues (central to Bleak House). However, when I googled this the modern references speak of children or an incapacitated adult. I was hoping some-one in the RootsChat community could give me a simple answer.
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Infants and lunatics placed under the protection of the court were referred to as ‘wards of court’.
Stan
Just to say that in common law an "infant" was one who has not completed his or her twenty-first year. In text books and statutes the words “infant” and “minor” are interchangeable and are used to describe a person who has not come of age i.e. 21.
Stan
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Thanks, Stan. I've found a reference at the National Archives. It seems that the plaintiffs were "infants by .(name)... spinster their next friend." My person of interest was a defendant with 2 others. Unfortunately the records are not digitised so have to be viewed on site.
I'm curious what "their next friend" meant as it seems to refer to the mother.
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I'm assuming this was something financial?
Btw thanks for the clarification on 'infant'
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I'm curious what "their next friend" meant as it seems to refer to the mother.
It's a legal term: https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/next+friend
Read all the definitions on the page.
If the plaintiffs were infants (as defined by Stan), they required a next friend to act in the suit on their behalf.
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Thanks for the clarification. Next stop Kew....
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Have you checked the newspapers, these cases were often reported in local and national newspapers.
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I'm curious what "their next friend" meant as it seems to refer to the mother.
It's a legal term: https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/next+friend
Read all the definitions on the page.
If the plaintiffs were infants (as defined by Stan), they required a next friend to act in the suit on their behalf.
"next friend" is now called a "litigation friend" after the introduction of the 1999 Civil Procedure Rules. https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part21#21.1
Stan
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Dicken's "Bleak House" is almost all about the problems of Chancery. People who through age ( too young) or various infirmities such as mental incapacity would have a "Friend" appointed, to speak and act on their behalf, representing them, if they were Wards in Chancery.
As far as I recall hearing, once an inheritance vanished into Chancery, the chances were it would mostly disappear in legal cost, one way or another
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I remember it well! I studied Bleak House for A-level, xxxx years ago.
I've found nothing in newspapers or periodicals. Kew it is then.
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Would you believe, I read it for pleasure?
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Chancery suits can be complicated to follow - see the guide on the TNA website. Can also be fascinating when you discover unexpected twists and turns. Great grandfather was involved in one hugely complex and prolonged case; by the end of it none of the original litigants were still alive, the case being continued by their heirs, and great grandfather was the only lawyer still surviving from those who began the case.
I started to look at documents from a case involving remote relatives and gave up quickly: the roll of parchments was the size of a medium suitcase!
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I remember the TV series, filmed in Ramsbottom (Hey House)
And Summerseat as the workers ‘ abode.
Can’t think why I got mixed up which book was Miss Flite in,always waiting in court?
Viktoria.
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"Miss Flite. a little. half-crazed old woman, a suitor in Chancery" is from Bleak House.
Just dug out my old copy, last read while at school. ;D