Saturday 16 November 1661
At the office all the morning. Dined at home, and so about my business in the afternoon to the Temple, where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice, which I read and like it, and so home.
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
At the office all the morning. Dined at home, and so about my business in the afternoon to the Temple, where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice, which I read and like it, and so home.
“…I found my Chancery bill drawn against… I read and like it,…” did he pay a fee or was done as professional curtesy ? The savings on interest was roughly 12/16L per annum. Or was it simply a case of wrights wright, no matter the cost. Just a wandering..
I assume he paid a fee. As one of my partners once told me, the law is not an eleemosynary activity — it is a profession pursued for profit. The pleading probably would have been prepared by a solicitor. Had it been a barrister, there would have been no “fee”, but a customary “gift” (barristers, being deemed gentlemen, did not charge for their services). This is a practice Samuel would have understood from his work at the Privy Seal.
“…where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice”
What is Chancery Bill? Is it a stamped IOU for the 200L. settlement?
“What is Chancery Bill?”
It is the pleading to initiate a suit — what is now called the “complaint”. Because Samuel’s case deals with questions of inheritance, it goes in the court of chancery, also known as the court of equity — as opposed to the court of law.
Black’s Law Dictionary (rev. 4th ed.) defines it thus:
“A formal written complaint, in the nature of a petition, addressed by a suitor to the chancellor or to a court of equity or a court having equitable jurisdiction, showing the names of the parties, stating the facts which make up the case and the complainant’s allegations, averring that the acts disclosed are contrary to equity, and praying for process [i.e., an order to the defendant to appear and answer the claim] and for specific relief, or for such relief as the circumstances demand.”