Ward in Chancery

[jc26red]

Have you checked the newspapers, these cases were often reported in local and national newspapers.

[stanmapstone]

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

[ThrelfallYorky]

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

[estiman]

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.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Would you believe, I read it for pleasure?

[GrahamSimons]

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!

[Viktoria]

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.

[antonymark]

"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.