Catalogue description Palatinate of Lancaster: Court of Chancery, Preston District Registry: Cause Books

This series contains cause books of the Preston District Registry from 1851 to 1956. Also included are the causes or actions heard and registered at Blackburn, which had its own office subordinate to that at Preston from 1893 to 1948, when they merged once more.

These cause books are a guide to the cases heard and registered at Preston. These books provide the chief guide to the documentation involved in a case, and the dates facilitate tracing a case in other series, which in turn cross refer to this series.

Each book starts with an alphabetical index using the plaintiff's surname first. Then follow double pages of entries headed Parties' Names, Solicitor, Nature of Proceeding, When Originated (date), Appearances, Interrogatories, Answers etc, Exceptions, Replications, Affidavits and Depositions, Petitions, Orders (dated), Reports and Certificates (dated), Memoranda of Service and General Remarks. There will seldom be entries under all these headings, but some such as Affidavits and Depositions may attract a batch of entries for most cases.

The cause books, therefore, are useful not so much for information about the contents of a case as for the clues to documentation of it that they provide, chiefly by means of the dates provided. There are also cross references to the cause books in other books, such as the court order books. The cause books sometimes refer to Acts of Parliament, under the plaintiff's name, as the points of reference in the case in hand.

Lancashire Chancery Court, Preston District Registry, 1875-1971

Palatinate of Lancaster, Chancery Court, Preston District Registry, 1853-1875