Catalogue description Palatinate of Durham: Chancery Court: Registers' Notebooks

This series comprises volumes containing notes made during sittings by the register of the Durham Chancery Court, and they contain similar material to the notes in the chancellor's notebooks, though with fewer details. Some volumes give the time when the notes were made. There are gaps in the series, and DURH 24/4 appears to have run concurrently with DURH 24/5-7, probably because of the nature of the notes in them which served as memoranda to the registers, rather than as official minutes of the proceedings.

During lulls in proceedings, some of the registers appear to have amused themselves by doodling extensively over their notes. These include caricatures of the chancellor and persons concerned with the cases, cartoons of cats, rabbits, judges and dog, a sketch of a grave marked 'Defendant's Case R.I.P.' with a cat commenting, "Wot a story!" and a cartoon of the wartime character 'Chad' dressed as a lawyer peering over a huge book labelled, 'WOT HOPES'.

The title of the case is written at the beginning of each entry with the date. Because the books are unindexed, it is best to search them for specific cases once the date of the hearing has been ascertained from:

the cause books in DURH 22

or the case files in DURH 27

Durham Chancery Court, 1836-1971