National Archives Court Case Look-up Possble ?

[LaytonLily]

This might be a request too far for even the very helpful experts on this site, but I thought it worth a try.

I have found details of a Court Case  involving quite a few members of my Twist family.  It looks very interesting from the few details shown !   But to have a copy made for me it will cost something like £50, which is too much for me to pay.

Is there any possibility that someone living in London would be going to wherever these documents are kept and could look at them for me ?   The actual documents might contain lots of words of legal jargon that i do not need, and it is just the reason for the case, what was claimed, what was decided etc. I would love to know.

Failing that, if that is too much to ask / to expect, could someone give me some idea - from the attached copy - what was going on.  Some of the names - William Henry Osborn, James Allport - I do not have on my Twist FT and it would be interesting to know what relationship they had with the Twist family.  They might have married into the family I suppose. 

Thank you for any help.

[Bookbox]

I would guess the case is connected with the will of Lucy Lawrence TWIST, widow of Birmingham, which was proved in the PCC on 14 January 1848 (PROB 11/2068/215). Some of the names in the catalogue description that you posted are also mentioned in that will. The will would probably be a good starting-point, if you haven't already seen it. It runs to several pages and is available on Ancestry, or you can purchase a copy online from TNA for £3.30.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D122393

To read the Chancery documents at TNA and summarize the two cases, as you suggest, would probably take at least a couple of hours, maybe more, depending on the handwriting and the condition of the documents. To discover what each case is about, you would probably have to transcribe most of the plaintiff's bill, cutting through the legal jargon as you go.

Another option would be for someone visiting TNA to photograph the documents for you, for transcribing at home. But that can be tricky, because the pages are usually very large and have to be photographed in sections.

ADDED - For anyone visiting, Chancery documents in C14 are normally stored offsite and have to be ordered into TNA with three days notice.

[LaytonLily]

Thank you for the reply Bookbox.   That's interesting what you say about the size of the sheets  -  it perhaps accounts for the cost if they are larger than A3.  I did e-mail National Archives to ask if there was a cheaper way to obtain a copy but didn't get a particularly helpful answer !

Sorry  -  but I didn't think to mention about the Will of Lucy Lawrence Twist (how did you know it might be about that ?!).  I have a copy and I had thought the Court Case might be about that.  Some of the names mentioned are the 'children' of Lucy (and Joseph) Twist.  Disagreement I presume over who was left what, or not left anything.  I have managed to transcribe some of the Will, I will go back and look more closely at it.   If there are bits I cannot make out, are there folks on this site who might help with the odd word or two ?

Lucy says an inventory should be taken of her household , but that did not come with the Will  -  might I be able to obtain that somewhere ?

I would so love to know what the Court case documents say !  but cost, in one way or another, will preclude it I think.

[Bookbox]

If you post small extracts of the will on the Handwriting board, people will surely help you decipher them.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/handwriting-deciphering-recognition/

In England, probate inventories were not a legal requirement after 1782, so it’s unlikely to have survived unless there are family papers or solicitors’ files. But in the event that the Chancery suit was connected to the inheritance of personal property, there's a slim chance that a copy of the inventory might be filed as an Exhibit with the Bill.