Chanceb

Y.2 1. In England, the highest court next to parliament. Originally consisted of two distinct tribunals: an ordinary court, or court of common law; and an extraordinary court, or court of equity. The "ordinary court" was the more ancient. It had jurisdiction in proceedings to cancel letterspatent, in cases of ti-averse of office, and the like; and of personal actions against officers of the court. Whenever any such cause came to an issue of fact, the chancellor, having no power to summon a jury, > 3 Bl. Com. 46, 47, 49. ' Chancelry: L. L. cancellaria, the record-room of sent the record to the court of king's bench for trial. Out of this ordinary tribunal also Issued original writs imder the great seal, commissions of charitable uses, of bankruptcy, of lunacy, etc.; for which the court was said to be always open: whence called the offlcina justitice, ^ The "extraordinary court" became the court of greatest consequence. When the courts of law, which followed strictly the directions of the original writs, ■pronounced a hai'sh or imperfect judgment, application for redress was at first made to the king in person and his coimsel; they, in time, referred the matter to the chancellor and a select committee, or, by degrees, to the chancellor alone, — the referee being empowered to mitigate the severity or to supply the defects of the judgment pronounced in the courts of strict law, upon consideration of all the circumstances in each case." See Chancellor. The equitable jurisdiction of the court grew out of the exigencies of the times and of judicial administration: as from petitions to the king in council; cases as to which the precedents furnished no form of action for a remedy; cases calling for relief from fraud, accident, mistake, forfeiture; cases involving uses and trusts. The well-defined development of its distinct exercise dates from the timq of Edward I (about 1300); but its character was crude until the time of Cardinal Woolsey and Sir Thomas Moore, under Henry VIII (1509-47). Lord Bacon reduced the practice to somewhat of a system. But Sir Heneage Finch (about 1680) so laid the foundation of modern equity jurisprudence as to have been called " the father of equity." l,ater lord chancellors, notabl.7 Hardwicke and Mansfield, extended and improved the system.' Under the Judicatm-e Act of 1873 the court of chancery became the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice, retaining its former extraordinary jurisdiction; with part of its former ordinary jurisdiction transferred to the Court of Appeal, and the rest to the Courts of Common Law. A too severe application of common-law rules brought the court of chancery into existence... The body of chancery law is nothing else than a system of exceptions — of principles applicable to cases falling within the letter, but not within the intention, of particular rules.* 2. In the United States, "chancery" corresponds to " equity," and a " court of chancery " to a " court of equity," that is, a court exercising equitable powers. Here equity jurisprudence has grown up chiefly since the close of the last century, the English com-t of chancery being followed as a model. In some of the States, and in the national tribunals, chancery powers are exercised by the common-law courts." See further Equity. 1 3 Bl. Cora. 47-48. ' 3 Bl. Com. 49-.50, 50-95. s See l,Story, Eq. §§ 41-52; 3 Bl. Com. 53-55; 1 Kent, 494. • Pennock v. Hart, 8 S, & R. 377 (1822), Gibson, J.