Susan T. Moore - Tracing Your Ancestors Through the Equity Courts: A Guide for Family & Local Historians

TRACING YOUR
ANCESTORS
THROUGH THE
EQUITY COURTS

FAMILY HISTORY FROM PEN & SWORD

Tracing Secret Service Ancestors

Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors

Tracing Your Ancestors

Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066 to 1837

Tracing Your Ancestors Through Death Records

Tracing Your Ancestors Through Family Photographs

Tracing Your Ancestors Using the Census

Tracing Your Ancestors Childhood

Tracing Your Ancestors Parish Records

Tracing Your Aristocratic Ancestors

Tracing Your Army Ancestors 2nd Edition

Tracing Your Birmingham Ancestors

Tracing Your Black Country Ancestors

Tracing Your British Indian Ancestors

Tracing Your Canal Ancestors

Tracing Your Channel Islands Ancestors

Tracing Your Coalmining Ancestors

Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors

Tracing Your East Anglian Ancestors

Tracing Your East End Ancestors

Tracing Your Edinburgh Ancestors

Tracing Your First World War Ancestors

Tracing Your Great War Ancestors: The Gallipoli Campaign

Tracing Your Great War Ancestors: The Somme

Tracing Your Great War Ancestors: Ypres

Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors

Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors

Tracing Your Labour Movement Ancestors

Tracing Your Lancashire Ancestors

Tracing Your Leeds Ancestors

Tracing Your Legal Ancestors

Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors

Tracing Your London Ancestors

Tracing Your Medical Ancestors

Tracing Your Merchant Navy Ancestors

Tracing Your Naval Ancestors

Tracing Your Northern Ancestors

Tracing Your Pauper Ancestors

Tracing Your Police Ancestors

Tracing Your Prisoner of War Ancestors: The First World War

Tracing Your Railway Ancestors

Tracing Your Royal Marine Ancestors

Tracing Your Rural Ancestors

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors

Tracing Your Second World War Ancestors

Tracing Your Servant Ancestors

Tracing Your Service Women Ancestors

Tracing Your Shipbuilding Ancestors

Tracing Your Tank Ancestors

Tracing Your Textile Ancestors

Tracing Your Trade and Craftsmen Ancestors

Tracing Your Welsh Ancestors

Tracing Your West Country Ancestors

Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors

A Guide for Family and Local Historians

Susan T. Moore

First published in Great Britain in 2017

PEN & SWORD FAMILY HISTORY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Susan T. Moore, 2017

ISBN 978 1 47389 166 1

eISBN 978 1 47389 168 5

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47389 167 8

The right of Susan T. Moore to be identified as Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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1. Henry Brougham, 17781868, Lord High Chancellor. (Lincolns Inn)

2. John Scott, Lord High Chancellor of England, 18016, by William Cowen.

3. Reports of cases in the Court of Exchequer.

4. Layout of courts of equity in Westminster Hall.

5. An example of palaeography from Court of Star Chamber. (TNA)

6. The site of Furnivals Inn. (authors collection)

7. Barnards Inn. (authors collection)

8. The White Hart, Wimborne.

9. Family in Taunton and Cornwall, C 6/357/16. (TNA)

10. A line drawing of Holbrook House. (Darren McGinley)

11. An Exhibit including appointment of attorney for Harvard. (TNA)

12. A typical Bill of Complaint, C 3/207/57. (TNA)

13. A typical Answer, C 3/207/57. (TNA)

14. A typical Deposition, STAC 3/80/1. (TNA)

15. A typical volume of Orders and Decrees. (authors collection)

16. Doodling in a calendar of Orders and Decrees, IND 1/1432. (TNA)

17. A typical Masters Report, Seamer v Johnson, C 38/262. (TNA)

18. Typical accounts in a Masters Report, C 38/262. (TNA)

19. A typical box of Masters Exhibits, C 110/80. (TNA)

20. A pedigree from a box of Masters Exhibits, C 103/18. (TNA)

21. Detail from a pedigree from a box of Masters Exhibits, C 103/18. (TNA)

22. Extract from a slave list in a box of Masters Exhibits, C 108/174. (TNA)

23. A page from IND 1 list for C 38. (TNA)

24. A typical page from a calendar of Chancery Orders and Decrees, 1655. (TNA)

25. A typical page from a calendar of Chancery Masters Reports. (TNA)

26. A typical Discovery entry from Exchequer Depositions by Composition, E 134. (TNA)

27. A typical calendar of Depositions from Duchy of Lancaster. (TNA)

28. A London Gazette supplement showing Chancery cases. (TNA)

29. The London Gazette showing Chancery cases. (TNA)

30. A map of Smallbrook Farm.

31. Schedule of rents from Chancery Depositions, C 22/976/9. (TNA)

32. An Order relating to the Gifford case, C33/283. (TNA)

33. Depositions relating to Roundhill Manor, STAC 3/3/80. (TNA)

34. A plan showing the proximity of places to Jane Austens house. (authors collection)

35. Ashe Rectory House. (authors collection)

36. A map showing the location of lands held by the Lefroy family. (authors collection)

37. The location of lands held by the Lefroy family showing names of individual holdings. (authors collection)

38. The Lefroy family tree. (authors collection)

39. The interior of Crondall church. (authors collection)

40. A modern road name reflecting the Lefroy connection with Crondall. (authors collection)

The records of the courts of equity are one of the most useful, if not the most useful of all sources for family history. I was first introduced to the records of the Court of many years ago when I was working as an apprentice genealogist. I was asked to make abstracts of a large number of cases relating to one family in a village in Hampshire. There were feuds and counter feuds, and that particular familys records kept me busy and very entertained for a life-changing week. That was my first introduction to Chancery records and their value to my historical research has in no way since diminished.

Since those early days I have regularly searched these enlightening records, studying not just the like those that first enthralled me, but also the myriad of related records, all of which can unearth fascinating information. It has become clear that these records can prove invaluable, not just for family historians but also for local and social historians.