Chancery

[Boudicca]

Having had a long break in my research I have come across some information about my Cooks in Kingham, Oxfordshire. I believe I have found the house my ggggrandparents lived in before their deaths in the 1880's. It also said the house went to chancery and was later bought by a Joshua Cook (who may have been their grandson). Is there a way of researching this? Why would it go to Chancery if they had children? Any ideas would be very helpful, thankyou.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Boudicca

The house may have "gone to Chancery" because they did not own the house, someone else did.

They may have had a life tenancy under the terms of someone else's Will and the interpretation of what was to happen to the house was unclear.

OC

[Mary from Italy]

Try searching the National Archives site, which has details of some Chancery cases:

The National Archives Quick Search

[Boudicca]

Thanks folks for the suggestions

[Phoenix]

If you can find a case in Chancery, then you will have a wonderful time.

There has to be enough money involved for it to be worth anyone's while to bring one (& in the fictional Jarndyce v Jarndyce, lawyers costs exhausted the estate)

It often happens because there IS a will, but its terms are imprecise.

I grew up with a tale of "Money Lost in Chancery" which I did not believe in the least... until, by pure fluke, I met a descendant of the family who had "Money Won in Chancery!"

It happened in the 1870s, was between surnames I had never heard of, and had taken my distant cousin fully a month to research it at Kew.

Victorian Chancery cases are not easy to research. The Byzantine filing practices mean the records may be in any one of a dozen places. But if you do find a way in to the subject, then the records are absolutely fascinating.

[Boudicca]

I must admit I'm intrigued. They were supposed to have money but I can't understand why their children/grandchildren wouldn't automatically inherit everything.

[Olde Crone Holden]

They would only inherit automatically if there was NO Will. As Phoenix said, there must either have been a Will, whose intention was open to several interpretations, OR the house did not belong to them, but another member of the family.

OC