Catalogue description Palatinate of Lancaster: Court of Chancery, Manchester District Registry: Entry Books of Decrees and Orders

These court orders record the decrees and orders of the Manchester District Registry in two series. The bulk are Vice-Chancellor's orders from 1857 until August 1922, and Duchy orders, so styled because they relate to out of court payments.

Many of the orders relate to the wills, partnerships or companies which have given rise to disputes. The usual signature on them is merely 'By the court'. Before every order the date and the names of plaintiff and defendant are given. The District Registrar filed and certified a plaintiff's complaint, and if it was vindicated, the defendant was subjected to a court injunction, interim order or order.

These stout folio volumes, obtained for their purpose from various Manchester stationers over the years, begin with an alphabetical index of cases by plaintiff, followed by procedural reports of cases on which court orders were made, and what the order was.

Thus the first case, PL 34/1, p1, on 4 Nov 1857, lists Nathaniel Haslam, plaintiff, and William and John Crompton and Samuel Scowcroft, defendants. It starts 'Upon motion this day made', a formula to introduce the plaintiff's counsel's initiative, the plaintiff's affidavit, and the due filing of the plaintiff's bill of complaint by the District Registrar, certified by him. On the plaintiff's undertaking to abide by any order made by the court 'as to damages' in consequence of an interim order, the court orders an injunction be issued to restrain the defendants from selling, removing or assigning the stock in trade, working machinery and effects of the partnership in which the plaintiff was involved until the 12th of November or until the court's further order. The words 'By the court' appear at the foot of the order.

In the first two decades, many of the cases concern wills: the difficulties of trustees or executors in carrying out bequests, saving the rights of infants, meeting the demands of creditors, and so on. As the first case above illustrates, there were also business, commercial or manufacturing, partnership problems to be adjudicated, and these steadily increase in number, leading in the 20th century to complex considerations of company law.

There is also a separate series of books of Duchy orders recording out of court payments in PL 34/52-89, covering the years 1880 to 1922. These books contain cross references to other books by year, initial of the plaintiff's name (the first plaintiff, if more than one), and number at the top of each order. They are subscribed 'By the court', and underneath that by the Duchy Vice-Chancellor. They have prefatory indexes arranged by the plaintiff's surname. These orders refer by date to any judgement or report previously made in the case in question. Most of them award payments in consequence of disputed claims to assets since entrusted to the court, whether arising out of probate or business transactions.

Lancashire Chancery Court, Manchester District Registry, 1875-1971

Palatinate of Lancaster, Chancery Court, Manchester District Registry, 1857-1875