Prerogative Court

In English Law. An ecclesiastical court held in each of the two provinces of York and Canterbury, before a judge appointed by the archbishop of the province. Formerly in this court testaments were proved, and administrations granted where a decedent left chattels to the value of five pounds {bona notabilia) in two distinct dioceses or jurisdictions within the province, and all causes relating to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons were originally cognizable. This jurisdiction was transferred to the court of probate by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77, § 4, and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 95. An appeal lay formerly from this court to the king in chancery, by St. 25 Hen.

In English law. A court established for the trial of ali testamentary causes, where the deceased left bono motabilia within two different dioceses; in which case the probate of wills belonged to the archbishop of the province, by way of special prerogative. And all causes relating to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons were originally cognizable herein, bsfore a judge appointed by the archbishop, calied the "judge of the prerogative court," from whom an appeal lay to the privy council. 3 Bl. Comm. 66; 3 Steph. Comm. 482. In New Jersey the prerogative court is the court of appeal from decrees of the orphans' courts in the several counties of the state. The court is held before the chancellor, under the title of the "ordinary." See In re Coursen's Will, 4 N. J. Eq. 413; Flanigan v. Guggenheim Smelting Co., 63 N. J. Law, 647, 44 Atl. 762; Robinson v. Fair, 128 U. S. 53, 9 Sup. Ot. 30, 32 In Ed. 415.

Defined under Prerogative in Black's Law Dictionary.