Catalogue description Palatinate of Lancaster: Court of Chancery, Manchester District Registry: Reports and Certificates

This series contains reports and certificates produced by the Manchester District Registry from August 1855 to December 1968. The Registrars' certificates relate to taxation, trusteeships, receivers' accounts and funds administered by the Chancery Court for the most part. The reports were made in consequence of court orders in certain specified cases, the District Registrar being directed to make an inquiry, on which he reported and in some cases certified. There are many more certificates than reports.

The certificates are anonymously certified by the District Registrar, using his title only. Many of them are taxation certificates, that is statements of the tax to be taken in proportion to the plaintiff's costs in court cases: they are 19th century descendants of the earlier taxed bill of costs. The date and parties involved in the case are stated, and any relevant order made by the court is cited, providing a cross-reference to the entry books if necessary, and then to the case files.

Other kinds of certificates concern certificates of apportionment, sharing out a residual estate; of approval of leases, when the court was trustee for freehold; of partition of realty; of good title; of interest due on a principal sum of money; of funds belonging to a plaintiff being held in Chancery; of approval of conveyance of property; of appointment of new trustees; of a list of, or of the non-appearance of, creditors; of cause 'correcter' stated; of passing receivers' accounts, and so on.

The reports are much less easy to generalise. They usually relate to a specific inquiry placed in the hands of the District Registrar by order of the court. For example, a report of 1 Feb 1870 concerns the case of Collier v Read, which prompted a court order on 27 Nov 1869. Other reports follow a similar pattern their titles identifying them with other cases, no doubt problematic ones. A report may go so far as to certify the object of the inquiry, if appropriate.

Lancashire Chancery Court, Manchester District Registry, 1875-1971

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