Forms: 4–5 chaunserie, -rye, 4–6 chauncerie, -rye, 5 chauncere, chauncre, 5–7 chauncery, 6 chaunsery, 6–7 chancerie, 7 chanserie, 6– chancery. [A worn-down form of chancelry, chancelery, CHANCELLERY.]
† 1. The office of a chancellor; chancellorship.
1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 2. Seculer officis, that is, chauncerie, tresorie, privy seal, and other siche seculer officis in the chekir.
1580. Hollyband, Treas, Fr. Tong., La Chancelerie, the Chancerie.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Chancilleria, a chauncellorshippe, the chauncerie.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Rustick Ramp. (1687), 410. The Bishop shall give them an Account of the Profits of his Chancery.
2. The court of the Lord Chancellor of England, the highest court of judicature next to the House of Lords; but, since the Judicature Act of 1873, a division of the High Court of Justice.
It formerly consisted of two distinct tribunals, one ordinary, being a court of common law, the other extraordinary, being a court of equity. To the former belonged the issuing of writs for a new parliament, and of all original writs. The second proceeded upon rules of equity and conscience, moderating the rigor of the common law, and giving relief in cases where there was no remedy in the common-law courts. Its functions in this respect are now transferred to the Court of Appeal.
In Ireland the Court of Chancery was distinct from, but analogous in character to, the English court; but it has been similarly changed into a division of the Irish High Court of Justice.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. IV. 28. In þe cheker and at þe chauncerie. [1362 Ibid. A. IV. 46. In Esscheker and Chauncelrie.]
1489–90. Plumpton Corr., 91. Whereof, I have a dedimus potestatem out of the Escheker, & another out of the Chauncre.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 56 b. A manne should appele from the common place to the chauncerie.
1659. Fuller, App. Inj. Innoc. (1840), 300. Thomas Lord Coventry, when coming from the chancery to sit down at dinner, was wont to say, ‘Surely, to-day I have dealt equally, for I have displeased both sides.’
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3724/4. S. Keck Esq.; a Master in the High Court of Chancery.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., 168. True honour is to honesty, what the court of chancery is to common law.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. IX. 189. The writ … was issued from the chancery.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., ix. 60. ‘There never was such an infernal cauldron as that Chancery on the face of the earth.’
1874. Ruskin, Fors Clav., IV. 287. Gridley’s real name was Ikey—he haunted Chancery.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiii. 135. Under the Conqueror we see the first beginnings of that class of clerks of the King’s chapel or chancery who had so large a share in the administration of the kingdom.
Mod. The heiress is a ward in Chancery.
b. Applied to similar courts elsewhere; in U.S. ‘a court of equity’ (Webster).
‘In imitation of the High Court of Chancery in England, various local courts of equity have sprung up in the British dominions and dependencies. Some of these are called Courts of Chancery…. In each of the counties palatine of Lancaster and Durham, and in Ireland, there is a court so named, which dispenses the same equity within the limits of its jurisdiction, as the High Court of Chancery.’ Penny Cycl., s.v.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 272. Auditour of the courte of the Chauncerie in Valladolith.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., 20 Oct. 1632. Lubeck wher … their prime Chancery is still.
1780. Coxe, Russ. Disc., 5. The government is vested in the chancery of Bolcheresk, which depends upon and is subject to the inspection of the chancery of Ochotsk.
1850. Burrill (in Webster), In some of the American States, jurisdiction at law and in equity centers in the same tribunal…. In others … the courts that administer equity are distinct tribunals, having their appropriate judicial officers, and it is to the latter, that the appellation courts of chancery is usually applied; but in American Law, the terms equity and courts of equity are more frequently employed.
c. Scotland. An office in the General Register House, Edinburgh (formerly called CHANCELLARY, q.v.), in which is kept a record of all writs relative to crown lands; also of crown charters of incorporation; commissions or gifts of office from the crown; service of heirs, general and special; and all writs appointed to pass the great or the quarter seal. From it are issued, in the sovereign’s name, brieves of inquest regarding idiotcy or insanity, and letters of tutory and curatory.
(Established by James I. on his return from his English captivity 1424, and apparently intended to be a court on the model of the English Chancery. But it was never completely organized, and after the complete establishment of the Court of Session (1532), the Chancery office was reduced practically to the function of issuing certain brieves, and recording certain writs. Cf. sense 3.)
1807–8. R. Bell, Dict. Law Scotl., s.v. Mod. ‘Served heir to his ancestor conform to decree of general service by the Sheriff of Chancery, dated…, and recorded in Chancery….’ ‘The Quarter Seal is kept by the Director of Chancery (the officer at the head of the Chancery Office).’
d. fig. (with reference to the functions of the court.)
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 93. It is thy gracious Court of Chancery and mitigation which I flye vnto: I am afraid to appeare at the Bench of Iustice.
1634. Ford, Perkin Warbeck, II. ii. D 2.
| The rigor and extremitie of Law | |
| Is sometimes too too bitter, but wee carry | |
| A Chancerie of pittie in our bosome. |
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. v. § 8. 175. The Propheticall office was a kind of Chancery to the Mosaick Law, wherein the Prophets did interpret the Pandects of the Law ex æquo & bono.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 888. His Will is not meer Will … but it is Law, Equity and Chancery.
1822. De Quincey, Confess. (1864), 213. Oh … righteous opium that to the chancery of dreams summonest … false witnesses.
e. fig. Equity, or proceedings in equity.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., VI. 1341. Whosoever came to see That peece of Chauncery, supposed me A very cheating Rascall.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., viii. 207.
3. A court of record; an office of public records; archives; also fig.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xxiv. 35. The kyng caused [these letters] to be kept in his chauncery.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLIII. xvi. 1166. The Censours … shut up and locked all the offices of the Chauncerie.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), VI. viii. 297. The accusing spirit, which flew up to Heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in.
1788. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 499. The Consuls and vice-Consuls … may establish a chancery, where shall be deposited the consular determinations, acts and proceedings.
1832. Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 789. Its slender chancery of written memorials.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr. (1858), 217. In Heaven’s Chancery also there goes on a recording.
† 4. Treasury. Obs. rare.
1842. De Quincey, Cicero, Wks. VI. 206. To pay back into the chancery of war, as into some fund of abeyance, all his own prizes, and palms of every kind.
5. = CHANCELLERY 2.
1561. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 45. How great difference there is betwene the popes chauncerie, and a well framed order of the Chirche.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 27. There are two chanceries, one for the Danish, and the other for the German language.
1882. C. E. Turner, Stud. in Russ. Lit., ix. 138. [He] offered Kriloff a place in his chancery.
6. = CHANCELLERY 3.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India (1596), 8. Cortez … did verely thinke, that he should be sent prisoner to the Chancerie of Santo Domingo.
1848. W. K. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 594. Entering the Place Vendôme, on their way to the Chancery.
7. Pugilism. [From the tenacity and absolute control with which the Court of Chancery holds anything, and the certainty of cost and loss to property ‘in chancery.’] A slang term for the position of the head when held under the opponent’s left arm to be pommelled severely, the victim meanwhile being unable to retaliate effectively; hence sometimes figuratively used of an awkward fix or predicament.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, III. x. 162. He ’ll not ‘put his head in chancery,’ that ’s clear.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 191. I feel as if I had old Time’s head in chancery, and could give it to him at my leisure.
1877. Besant & Rice, Son of Vulc., I. ii. 28. What a thing it is to have your head in Chancery.
8. attrib. and Comb., as chancery-court, -judge, -man, -practice, -suit, -suitor, -ward; chancery-double, a name for a kind of paper (? obs.); chancery-hand, a particular style of engrossing.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 161. The memory is as it were the register and *chancery court of all the other senses.
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, Hist. Servia, 328. A national chancery court.
1712. Act 10 Anne, in Lond. Gaz., No. 5018/3. For all Paper called … *Chancery double 2s. … per Ream.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 12 July. Mr. Kipps … directed me to Mr. Beale to get my patent engrossed; but, he not having time to get it done in *chancery-hand, I was forced to run all up and down Chancery Lane.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., Pref. A *Chancery Judge once had the kindness to inform me … that the Court of Chancery … was almost immaculate.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 395. A *Chauncerie man, or a practiser in the law, to drawe out writtes.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion, 55. The House of the Rolls … hath beene of long time, as it were, the Colledge of the Chancerie-men.
1874. Ruskin, Fors Clav., IV. 244. [Dickens] I have heard had real effects on *Chancery practice.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, XXI. 162. A *Chancery suit, the costs of which would undoubtedly fall on the claimants.
1830. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 258. The celebrated injunction of a noble *chancery-suitor to his son.
