CHANCERIES
Noun
chanceries
plural of chancery
Source: Wiktionary
CHANCERY
Chan"cer*y, n. Etym: [F. chancellerie, LL. cancellaria, from L.
cancellarius. See Chancellor, and cf. Chancellery.]
1. In England, formerly, the highest court of judicature next to the
Parliament, exercising jurisdiction at law, but chiefly in equity;
but under the jurisdiction act of 1873 it became the chancery
division of the High Court of Justice, and now exercises jurisdiction
only in equity.
2. In the Unites States, a court of equity; equity; proceeding in
equity.
Note: A court of chancery, so far as it is a court of equity, in the
English and American sense, may be generally, if not precisely,
described as one having jurisdiction in cases of rights, recognized
and protected by the municipal jurisprudence, where a plain,
adequate, and complete remedy can not be had in the courts of common
law. In some of the American States, jurisdiction at law and in
equity centers in the same tribunal. The courts of the United States
also have jurisdiction both at law and in equity, and in all such
cases they exercise their jurisdiction, as courts of law, or as
courts of equity, as the subject of adjudication may require. In
others of the American States, the courts that administer equity are
distinct tribunals, having their appropriate judicial officers, and
it is to the latter that the appellation courts of chancery is
usually applied; but, in American law, the terms equity and court of
equity are more frequently employed than the corresponding terms
chancery and court of chancery. Burrill. Inns of chancery. See under
Inn.
– To get (or to hold) In chancery (Boxing), to get the head of an
antagonist under one's arm, so that one can pommel it with the other
fist at will; hence, to have wholly in One's power. The allusion is
to the condition of a person involved in the chancery court, where he
was helpless, while the lawyers lived upon his estate.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition