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Plain English please! What's a ward in chancery?

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  • Plain English please! What's a ward in chancery?

    and is there somewhere I can find out more about a person who was one?

  • #2
    I think it's just what we'd call a "ward of court" nowadays. No idea where you'd find out more - what period is it?

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    • #3
      Merry - there's a question about it on a rootsweb listing - might be of help
      RootsWeb: GLAMORGAN-L Re: Ward of CHANCERY
      Elaine







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      • #4
        Thanks you two!

        Well, I have a tree of 2,000 people completed by my 1st cousin (a few times removed) between 1890 and 1963! A friend of ours is related to a lady in the tree who "married in", so my relative only has the bare bones about her.

        Maria Harvey b abt 1780/1 married William Hunt 15th Oct 1799 (no place given, but I should think it was a Quaker marriage in Bristol). Maria was buried in 1852 at Kingsweston aged 72.

        The age at burial is probably where he got her approx year of birth from, though she is noticeably younger in 1841 and 1851 (living at Henbury Gloucestershire)! The only other note he has about her is "ward in chancery" which I would guess he found with the marriage entry when she was probably a minor. The 1851 census says she was born in Croydon, Surrey.

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        • #5
          Would it just mean her parents were dead and she was made a ward of court? We need to find out who her parents were!! :(

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          • #6
            She was probably made a ward of court because her parents died when she was a minor, and she had some property which needed to be protected until she came of age. If she married before reaching her majority, the court would have to give consent.

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            • #7
              Further to Mary's post above, I always find it useful to remember that "Chancery" was generally to do with money, lol, and anyone who was a ward of chancery was a beneficiary of an entailed will,(or no will at all) probably underage but not necessarily so - women were considered soppy things who could easily fall prey to a fortune hunter even at the age of 60 or more, and needed male protection, or the protection of the court.

              OC

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              • #8
                Thanks Mary and OC!


                Apparently she believed she was related to this man:

                Eliab Harvey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                and this man:

                William Harvey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                So, there's a challenge! lol

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                • #9
                  I seem to remember a ward of chancery was mentioned once on WDYTYA (or was it another series?), and they said it was very difficult to find any of the records because they were illegitimate children of the high-up, titled people etc., and so it was all kept secret. Or am I thinking of something else?
                  KiteRunner

                  Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                  (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                  • #10
                    Oooh, there's a thought! lol

                    My Quaker lot would be spinning in their graves to think they might have someone ILLEGITIMATE in their ranks! :D And what if she was the natural dau of someone titled??! They wouldn't approve of that either! Pity it's a common name in a difficult-to-research (online) area.

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                    • #11
                      It was the John Hurt episode - if you look it up there will be some info about wards of chancery, but it looks as though they weren't all that type, so probably yours was a respectable heiress!
                      KiteRunner

                      Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                      (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Merry

                        I presume you have tried the A2A site and keyed in the names of interest? Most chancery cases are at the National Archives. I have found one or two of my Scottish ones on there.

                        Janet

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                        • #13
                          I thought a2a was redundant? I stopped using it a year or so back! Don't tell me I should be using it now? I always do my searches on TNA site now.......

                          (not that I could find anything on Maria Harvey!)

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                          • #14
                            When I thin k of wards in chancery I think of Jarndyce v Jarndyce from Bleak House :D
                            Jeanette
                            Don't interpret this smile as happiness; it's insanity! :D

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                            • #15
                              Hm A2A site to be withdrawn March 09 but it has changed since I last used it just before Xmas 08! I think you can still search A2A on the site but maybe you have to search through TNA instead? I haven't tried.

                              Janet

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                              • #16
                                The TNA main search page also searches A2A.

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                                • #17
                                  The A2A site is defunct, although it hasn't actually been withdrawn yet - you are redirected to TNA.

                                  *sobs with grief - I LOVED A2A, I HATE TNA*

                                  OC

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                                  • #18
                                    Oh dear I did use A2A a lot so not sure what I will do now, but at least I did print off a lot of material on A2A. I always found it so good for many things. I shall have to look at the new system to see what is now available. Why do they have to change someting that works well!! Maybe they found they were giving away too much information for free and that would never do!:(

                                    Janet

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                                    • #19
                                      I think the same material's still there, isn't it? TNA searches often bring up material that's held in local archives, which I assume was originally on the A2A pages.

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                                      • #20
                                        Mary

                                        No, not the same amount of info, definitely! I think Janet is right, A2A gave too much information away for free.

                                        I noticed a reduction in information about 18 months ago on A2A (thought I was going mad, but compared something I had printed off a few years ago with the same document and it had definitely been pared down to uselessness!)

                                        I find TNA an impenetrable thicket I'm afraid. Whatever search term I use either brings me one entry, or ten thousand.

                                        OC

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