Chancery - circa 1860 - timescale

[yelkcub]

Can someone who has knowledge of the Court of Chancery circa 1860 suggest an answer to this question:

How long approximately did it take for a petitioner to get his case to court?

The case I'm interested in came to the Vice-Chancellor's Court in December 1861. It would really help my research if I could form an idea of when the events related in the Times report of the proceedings might have taken place.

[Colin Moretti]

Hello yelkcub

I have the details of only one case, but here it is, for what it's worth:

A relative died 12 August 1861 and his will was proved by 5 September 1861. The executors or their legal advisers decided that there were a number of aspects of the will that needed to be clarified and applied to the Court of Chancery for advice, the first hearing was on 5 February 1862, ie 5 months later. There were numerous hearings in Chancery over the years and, because his widow did not die until 1899 the case was not finally concluded until 1901 - 39 years after its commencement.

Because of the time the case took to resolve I would say that it was unlikely to be typical but no doubt the time to the initial hearing was similar to others at the same time. I would guess, however, that it would very much depend on how quickly the lawyers involved worked, rather than the speed of the court.

I hope that helps

Colin

[AnnR]

I can't help with any specific examples but the Court of Chancery was notorious for its lengthy delays with cases lasting for many years so much so that much of Dickens' novel Bleak House focused on the consequences of estates being tied up for so long.

[Peter Goodey]

Perhaps the question can be circumvented. Have a look at this National Archives Research Guide (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=165).

Some pleadings are searchable online and there is advice on searching in the guides and catalogue. Have you tried the catalogue?

[yelkcub]

Many thanks for your example Peter. I have in fact searched the NA catalogue and come up with no result - the only available document concerning this case is in a Times article. Annoyingly, the complainant is not named.

The matter involved a trust. In his will of 1835, the year he died, a brother of my ancestor had left a fund to his surviving three brothers, stipulating that when the last of the brothers died the funds should go to the brothers' children. According to the Times report, the last of the brothers had died. The case questioned (successfully) the legitimacy of my ancestor's children - so the case is likely to have been brought by a child (or children) of one of the other brothers. My ancestor died in 1851, but I have no idea when his other two brothers died - presumably between 1851 and 1861. So far I have been unable to trace my ancestor's brothers (apart from the one who died in 1835).

Best wishes IAN

[Kerrywood]

Some pleadings are searchable online and there is advice on searching in the guides and catalogue. Have you tried the catalogue?


I have in fact searched the NA catalogue and come up with no result - the only available document concerning this case is in a Times article. Annoyingly, the complainant is not named.

The pleadings for this period (C 16) aren't indexed online, so that'll be why you haven't found it in the catalogue.

You'd need to look up the case first in the cause book (C 32), which should guide you to the pleadings. The advantage of searching this way round is that the cause books list ALL the parties to the case, not just the plaintiff. So if you have any names at all you've a chance of finding it.

Obviously you'd need to go to Kew to do this, or have someone visit on your behalf. Given time and patience, there's every chance the case-files could be found there.

[yelkcub]

Kerrywood -
Thankyou - that really is OPTIMISTIC news! While I don't know the name of the person bringing the suit (though the surname may well be Page), I know the names of my ancestor's children, who sought to establish that their parents were, in fact, married. I'll do some reading up on the cause book, and hope to be able to make the trip up to London in a couple of months.
Solving this mystery - the identity of the complainant - really would begin to demolish a solid brick wall
Best wishes IAN

[yelkcub]

UPDATE
Thanks to the amazing and much appreciated generosity and expertise of (ahem) a certain list member, who obviously spent a considerable amount of time burrowing in the NA on my behalf, I now know the name of the petitioner in this case. Even better, I now know the identity of another of my elusive ancestor's brothers - and, since I have the baptismal record of the brother, I have my ancestor's parents' names.
One brick wall well on the way to becoming a heap of rubble that can be stepped over on the way to full enlightenment!