Catalogue description Duchy of Lancaster: Court of Duchy Chamber: Affidavits, Reports, Certificates, Orders, Petitions etc.

Pieces 1 to 27 are in chronological order and organised reasonably well within various groupings of record types. However, pieces 28 to 50, which were added to the series some years later, are not in any, but the most general date order and many pieces cover overlapping periods of time. .

Affidavits

Original affidavits were the drafts of the statements made by the various deponents as recorded by the clerk of the court. It was from these original affidavits that the entries in the registers were made. Original affidavits were recorded on paper sheets of various sizes. They were often signed by the person making the statement and sometimes by the court official before whom they were made; usually the Clerk, deputy Clerk or the Attorney-General.

As the court developed, the affidavit was increasingly used by both parties to make any general declaration to the court which they considered material to their case. They were used to present matters of evidence which had not been presented to the court through the normal process of interrogatories and depositions. From the eighteenth century affidavits, which previously had been made only before the court at Westminster, were also able to be sworn before commissioners appointed for the purpose in the localities. Where this was the case it is usually indicated on the affidavit.

Reports

In order to speed up the business of the court and assist the Chancellor in his judgements other Duchy officials were authorised to investigate the substance of a dispute and make suitable comments and suggestions. Many of the judgements of the court were based on such reports, which were similar in function to the reports of the Masters in the royal Chancery. Reports were most often made by the Attorney-general, the Clerk or his deputy and they could relate to either equity cases or revenue matters as has been seen above in the report into the affairs of the beleaguered bailiff of Leicester. They were initiated by an order of the court. Reports were sometimes ordered after the partial settlement of a suit to determine what matters were still at issue, and especially to determine payments between parties.

Certificates

Occasionally commissioners who had been appointed to record evidence in suits before the court were unable to fulfil their obligation. This may have been for one of a variety of reasons, such as the non-appearance of witnesses or the parties themselves or a clash of dates with another examination. One of the requirements of their commissions was that the commissioners inform the court when they had fulfilled their orders, and they had to do so even if they had not been able to hear and record the witnesses testimony. Commissioners' reports were known as certificates, and they are usually filed with the written evidence returned to the court.

Petitions

As the jurisdiction developed, proceedings were increasingly subject to applications to the court requesting the granting of some form of action or objecting to the actions of the other party. Applications of this type were either by written petition or motion in the court. They should not be confused with the bill or petition presented to the court by the plaintiff to initiate a suit. Petitions might relate, for example, to: the transfer of causes from other courts, particularly the Chancery Court of the Palatinate of Lancaster; further time to submit pleadings or other documentation to the court; permission to sue in forma pauperis (as a pauper and able to receive free legal services); requests for the setting of hearings or the attachment of defaulting parties.