Daily AncestorChancery
Chancery is a court of equity that handled cases the regular courts could not fit, such as disputes over estates, land titles and family property.
Chancery began in England as the Lord Chancellor's court of equity, for cases where the ordinary courts gave no fair remedy. Many American states had chancery courts or equity sides of their courts, which heard disputes over estates, land and family property.
Chancery files are often long and full of family detail, with sworn answers from heirs, maps and lists of relatives scattered across several states.
As seen in a recordCase heading in a chancery court file
Bill in Chancery: Mary Hart v. Wm. Hart et al.
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Chancery." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/chancery. Last checked 2026-10-01.