Court of Chancery: Petty Bag Office: Common Law Pleadings

C 206

c1558-c1901

The pleadings, or formal statements by the parties, in common law suits brought in Chancery.

The variety of suits include

• actions on recognizances acknowledged in Chancery;
• actions on writs of scire facias (generally concerning the revocation of royal grants and charters and the repeal of letters patent, due to fraud or abuse);
• actions on writs of partition of land among co-parceners, or for the assignment of dower;
• petitions of right for relief against the Crown, generally in connection with claims to property;
• determinations of the liability of a landowner's estate to pay incidents of tenure to the Crown, by taking inquisitions and making assessments.

Similar records before 1485 are in C 44

Similar records from 1485 to 1558 are in C 43

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

94 bundle(s)

Topics

Marriage and divorce

Crime

From the reign of Edward I, Chancery began to exercise common law jurisdiction over actions brought by or against its own officers, and over the settlement of disputes arising out of its administrative activities.

In all such actions, the chancellor was bound to observe the normal procedure of the common law. When issue was joined on a question of fact, the action, together with the record, was supposed to be transmitted to the Court of King's Bench for settlement; but a petition to Parliament in 1401 shows that the chancellor sometimes preferred to call the common law judges into Chancery to assist him.