Catalogue description Chancery: Registrars' Office: Miscellaneous Papers

Miscellaneous papers which have been divided into three groups: charity briefs, papers in causes, and precedent and office papers.

Charity briefs were prepared under an act of 1705. They are printed papers in the form of a proclamation appealing for charity for the victims of fire and flood, and giving licence for collection of alms money. They name the victims of the fire, its time, place, and effect, and the total estimated losses, and are endorsed by the churchwardens of the parishes concerned to show the amount of money collected.

The papers in causes include original petitions pursuant to orders and examinations before commissioners appointed by the court, mostly relating to the disposition of assets, several in matrimonial causes, but including a petition of 1729 from the warden of the Fleet, imprisoned by order of parliament for alleged serious misconduct of office; original, draft and copy orders; and exhibits, including a pedigree of the Lethbridge family.

The precedent and office papers include original admissions of masters in Chancery; papers concerning the custody and authenticity of the records; a lengthy petition of the sworn clerks alleging vandalism and verbal and physical abuse by their underlings; and evidence offered by one of the sworn clerks, c1790, in a dispute with the six clerks concerning the fees and practice of the office.