Catalogue description Chancery Masters' Account Books

This series contains Chancery Masters' Account Books. When an estate was in dispute in Chancery, the Chancery Master would appoint people to administer any property and submit an annual account to the court. Many of these cases involve children under the age of 21 or lunatics deemed incabable of managing their own affairs.

Using volunteers The National Archives have catalogued these records and the descriptions now give full names of the parties (where given), the places and counties, the name of the receiver and the Chancery Master as well as the dates covered by the accounts. These can be useful in indicating subject matter for causes where our current descriptions for pleadings just have names, sometimes only short titles. These accounts can and give significant details concerning the management of both rural and urban property.

There are just under 300 entries that refer to the managemnt of estates in the West Indies.

The Chancery Masters also dealt with early cases under the Joint Stock Companies Winding Up Acts 1848 and 1849 and these records give useful information on mid 19th century company development, often listing all the names and addresses of their shareholders.