Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History by Joseph Byrne Page A

council, custodian of the great seal and head of chancery , the secretariat from which all important documents, writs and grants were issued. He was also responsible for government records (a function later transferred to the deputy-chancellor or master of the rolls ). By the sixteenth century chancery had developed an equity division to deal with disputes concerning land and debt for which the common law provided no remedy. Until 1801, when the master of the rolls was given judicial power, chancery cases were determined by the chancellor sitting without a jury. The process involved was lengthy, cumbersome and expensive. The plaintiff drew up a bill of complaint to which the defendant filed an answer. The plaintiff responded with a replication which was countered by a rejoinder. This correspondence was examined by the chancellor who could compel either party to produce relevant documents or respond to oral interrogation. His decision issued in the form of a decree. After 1801 the chancellor heard cases on appeal from the master of the rolls but from 1856 he was joined in his appellate jurisdiction by a lord justice of appeal in chancery and in 1867 a second judge or vice-chancellor was appointed to hear cases of first instance .
    chancery, court of . Chancery emerged in Ireland in the thirteenth century with the appointment of Ralph Neville, the English lord chancellor, to the Irish chancery in 1232. It functioned principally as the secretariat of the English administration, the department where important documents, writs and letters patent were prepared, sealed and enrolled but it also developed an equitable jurisdiction in disputes for which no remedy lay at common law. The twofold division of chancery as a court of equity and secretariat was completed by the sixteenth century. Chancery holds the distinction of being the only court for which original records survive, some bundles of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pleadings and answers and books of recognisances having escaped the fire in the Public Record Office in 1922. These, together with nineteenth-century calendars of chancery bills and decrees, are held in the National Archives. Letters patent, the instrument by which the crown conferred grants of land, leases, privileges and office, were required to pass the great seal which was in the custody of the lord chancellor, the chief executive of chancery. While the England chancery maintained a sophisticated system of record-keeping with many sub-divisions, in Ireland there were but two: the patent and close rolls. Even that distinction rapidly fell into desuetude and all perished in 1922. However, calendars of the patent rolls prepared for the Irish Record Commission by James Morrin and John Erck have been printed. The National Archives also holds John Lodge’s transcripts of the patent rolls which contain material not included in the calendars. (Connolly, Medieval record sources , pp. 14–18; Erck, A repertory ; Morrin, The patent rolls. )
    chanter . A chorister, also known as precentor, the leading singer in a chantry and a member of the cathedral chapter .
    chantry . 1: An endowment for the chanting of masses usually for the soul of the founder of the endowment 2: A chapel with such an endowment. See guilds, religious.
    chapel of ease . A dependent chapel constructed to meet the needs of an expanding population or to cater for parishioners living some distance from the parish church.
    chapelry . The jurisdiction of a chapel.
    chapman . A pedlar, especially of chapbooks.
    chapbook . A popular and inexpensive book hawked by chapmen. Usually of about four pages and illustrated with woodcuts, chapbooks contained ballads, poems, folklore, nursery rhymes, accounts of criminal sensations, in fact anything that would satisfy the public need for light reading.
    chapter . The corporate body which managed the property and revenue of a cathedral . There is no evidence to suggest that cathedral chapters after the English