Money in chancery

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I just read this on the TNA site:

"Solicitors wishing to deposit money where the heirs, beneficiaries or next of kin cannot be traced have used the Court of Chancery and the Chancery Division of the High Court since 1876."

So, what about monies from before 1876? Has someone spent it? :(

[claretaylor22]

I believe that the Chancery Court was set up in 1876 under legislation that stream lined the common law and equity jurisdictions;)

but what happened before I have no idea! my book only starts in 1876!!!:p

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Hmmmm!!

My friend has just started her tree and we have discovered that loads of her relations believe there is money held somewhere (yes, I know.....everyone says this!) and the person who missed out on the inheritance did so because she got married in 1798 and no one knew she existed under her new surname!!

[claretaylor22]

what an interesting puzzle. :D
an educated guess is that altho the Chancery Court as we know it today wasn't created until 1876 it applies legal principals which have been which date back hundreds of years so a similar system must have been in existence prior to 1876. my "book" on this is at work but I'll have a look tomorrow to see what is does say about before 1876 to see if it says more than I remember!

I'm not sure if this helps but the Chancery Court did actually exist prior to 1876, but in a different form to the one today. Technically today the Chancery Court is one of the three divisions of the High Court, whereas prior to 1876 it had been a stand alone institution applying the rules of equity.
So any money should presumably still be there!!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Oooh thank you!! I'd be most grateful if you could have a look

We were laughing earlier......as you might expect there are loads of descendants of the couple who married in 1798 so what money there might be would be seriously divided.......my friend's OH says I can have a cut if I find it!! The money is supposed to have been tied up in the West Indies.

Apparently, in the Victorian era some of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the 1798 couple spent years and years and a lot of money looking for proof of the 1798 marriage, which is now showing on the IGI!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Thanks for the update and PM. I will let my friend know what you have said!

*considers buying a yacht*

[claretaylor22]

only one?!;)

[Harrys mum]

Wondering how much Ariel money is tied up in the West Indies.......


******also wondering if Agatha went looking for it*******

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Libby, Maybe we could meet up there and have a nice holiday whilst looking for the missing money!!

[Uncle John]

You could stay on OC's sugar plantation in the manner to which you could become accustomed.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I'd already been thinking about that possibility!!

[Harrys mum]

Libby, Maybe we could meet up there and have a nice holiday whilst looking for the missing money!!

Maybe you could go first and do a clean up on Agatha's brothers headstone......lol

I'll help you relax then.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

*packs scrubbing brush* :(

[KiteRunner]

I guess it would be money gained by using slave labour, like the grand country house that Kevin Whately was so glad not to have inherited.

[Harrys mum]

Don't ruin it Kite.................Merry and I had plans for a relax. (after Merry does a bit of cleaning...lol)

I often wonder about the Ariels...........they were all traders in Bristol (East India and West Indies) with sugar, dyes, cotton, even wines and spirits, yet they were very involved in the abolition of slavery. Can't quite work it out.

One of their sons died in 1828 in Barbados, aged 20.

[Penelope]

Yes, Chancery existed well before the 1870s. Dickens based the plot of Bleak House (1852) around 'money in chancery' cases - notorious at the time as the cases might take one or two generations' lifespans to get through the courts by which time every penny was gone... on legal fees to get the cases through chancery!

Keats (who died in 1821) also had some money in chancery but he was unaware of it, and died in great debt having been cleaned out of all his money by his brother who spent it emigrating to America. His guardian - who must have known about it - never told him.

I know one of my ancestors was involved in something to do with chancery around 1810-ish. The will was one of an elderly lady-of-the-manor who died with no children, last of a long line... and left some of her money to be spent, by the churchwardens, on setting up a school. The case took so long going through chancery, my ancestor (one of the churchwardens) got the school built, started appointing a master etc - only to end up being sued himself for getting on with it. Wasn't even his money.

Re. anti slavery I have William Wilberforce in my tree - but he's not a blood ancestor just related to someone who married in to our family.

I've no idea whether there's any form of statute of limitations in place re. 'money in chancery', or not?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Libby

Not all slave owners were evil men - my own slave owners released all their slaves BEFORE the abolition of slavery bill. Some wouldn't leave!

I suppose it depends on your perspective really - I was originally sickened to find that I had black slave-owning ancestors.

Then I discovered that a century later I had mill-owning ancestors in Lancashire, who employed children as young as three years old, taken from the workhouse, and who expected a 14 hour day from their employees. Not much difference to my mind.

In fact, the slaves quarters have now been restored and were actually far more spacious than the terrible hovels of Lancashire millhouses.

Neither situation was commendable of course, but...that was then, this is now, as they say.

OC

[Harrys mum]

OC......................I wish you hadn't mentioned the mill owners in Lancashire. I have them with children as young as 5 as "ashburners". The owners house has 14 bedrooms all with ensuites built in the early 1500s.

I'm sure the ash burners didn't even have a bedroom.

I suppose our families in years to come will recoil at some of the things we have allowed as well.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Yes Kite, stop trying to make us feel bad! if the money is there (and my gut feeling is in my friend's case, it isn't!) then Libby and I might be going to give our share to charity!! Better in our hands than the government as far as I'm concerned.

[Cloggie]

I know one of my ancestors was involved in something to do with chancery around 1810-ish. The will was one of an elderly lady-of-the-manor who died with no children, last of a long line... and left some of her money to be spent, by the churchwardens, on setting up a school. The case took so long going through chancery, my ancestor (one of the churchwardens) got the school built, started appointing a master etc - only to end up being sued himself for getting on with it. Wasn't even his money.

One of mine was also involved in something to do with the High Court of Chancery in 1801. I haven't investigated further yet, but when I ordered a copy of the will from Lancs Record Office, I was sent 2 copies - the will written in 1791 and an exact copy in different handwriting from 1801, "extracted from the Public Episcopal Registry of Chester" in a cause involving one of the daughters (+ new husband) who remarried after her father's death in 1796 versus her brother, an unmarried sister, and another sister who married after their father's death.

I suspect it has something to do with the following, mentioned in the will concerning the daughter Ellen, who was the complainant in the cause:
"... and as my son Thomas and my two daughters Ellen Mann and Juliana Lyon are already well and sufficiently provided for I hereby order and direct that my said son Thomas shall have my gold watch and I do request that my Executors hereafter named do provide for each of my said two daughters Ellen and Juliana genteel mourning which I consider to be in lieu of my bequest..."

Ellen remarried to a "Gentleman" 3 months after her parents' death (they died within 1 day of each other), so presumably she was a widow at the time of her parents' death.

Anyone know what exactly "genteel mourning" would be? I've googled and found another will mentioning a "genteel mourning suit". Would "genteel mourning" refer to the same?