Court of Chancery: Six Clerks Office: Pleadings before 1714, Mitford

C 8

c1570-1714

The records in this series consist of pleadings in equity cases initiated in the court of Chancery.

They often comprise the plaintiff's bill of complaint only, but the defendant's answer and other documents in the process, including the plaintiffs' replication to the answer, are also filed in many cases.

Matters in dispute include inheritance, lands, trusts, mortgages, debts and marriage settlements.

The series is searchable by names of first named plaintiff an one or more defendant, place and subject, thanks to the work of the Friends of The National Archives and other volunteers in inputting the descriptions from manuscript finding aids available at The National Archives.

Document type, the names of extra defendants (in the format [unknown] Bloggs), and some improved dates have been added from OBS 1/382-387 and further details on the parties have been added from cataloging work done in the 1840s in OBS 1/522/550.

This work was completed in 2017.

In addition, the opportunity was taken to add four codes to help researchers identify causes brought by different types of litigant, as follows:

• By gender: SFP for sole female plaintiff, and JFP for joint female plaintiffs - where the bill was filed in the name of females only. [Sole here does not imply femme sole, although many female litigants were widows or spinsters]. This is not completely to be trusted, as it omits a widow acting for infant sons but includes a widow acting for infant daughters, also the earlier cataloguing work did not always note when a female was an infant or wife of a defendant and represented by a male next friend.
• By corporate body: CBP brings up colleges, London companies etc.
• By unincorporate body - a group acting in a joint interest: UBP will produce churchwardens, parishioners, copyholders, manorial tenants, inhabitants etc.

These codes (SFP, JFP, CBP, UBP) can of course be used with other search terms.

For the related bill books arranged alphabetically under the plaintiffs' names see: IND 1/2136 - IND 1/2151; Cause Books for the Six Clerks can be found in IND 1/4105 - IND 1/4207

Catalogue entries for this series have been enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers, including the Friends of The National Archives; completed in May 2017.

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

658 bundles and files

Topics

Archives and libraries

Manors

Litigation

Marriage and divorce

Children

Debt

Sex and gender

The series is named after William Mitford, who was one of the six clerks from 1738 to 1787.