l'pon these principles chancery, as do our modern courts of equity. afforded relief in cases of frond (q.v.) and mistake (q.v.). It compelled defendants before it to give discovery (q.v.). ad ministered trusts, Plc., :Ill matters of which courts of law took no cognizance. It also ob tained an ;Administrative jurisdiction over the affairs of married women, infants., and insane persons. by virtue of the Chancellor representing the king in his administrative capacity.
Thus there grew up with the common law- a great legal system which. while consistent With and. indeed, to it, largely independent of it. Its °thee was to mitigate the rigor of the rules of tire common law and supply its deficiencies. and this it was able to do be •alise of the manner in which it exercised its juisdiction. The jurisdiction of the court of chancery is (a) coiirdinate. (h) supplementary.
tel exelusive.
.jurisdiction is said to he 01;4(1111:Ile When the litigant has his election to seek relief at law or in chancery. Hence. for breach of contract the plaintiff has alternative of recovering dam ages at law: or, if legal daninges are inadequate, securing specific performance of the contract by decree of the chaneelhir.
T lc jurisdiction of chancery is sail to be sup plemental when, for the purpose of protecting right; recognized and enforced by aeons of law. it infers and enforces new 4111114,11de rights: thins the right of the mortgagor II) redeem mortgaged property and of the mortgagee to foreclose in equity, and, in a similar manner, the exercise of its jurisdiction over waste (q.v.). are typical examples of the supplemental jurisdiction of chancery. (See MotirGAuk.) The jurisdiction of chancery is exclusive when its powers are ex erted in protecting purely equitable rights—that is. rights which are recognized in ehancery, but of %%Ilia the law takes no cognizance. The most notable example is the jurisdiction exercised in chancery over uses and trusts (q.v.).
Before 187:1 the constitution of the Court. of
Chancery in England consisted of the Lord high Chancellor, the Master of the Bolls. and three vice-chancellors. In that year an act, was passed by which the Court of Chancery became one di vision of the High Court of Justive, retaining only its equity jurisdiction. its ordinary juris diction being transferred to other divisions of the court. This form: an important part of that 'fusion of law and equity' under the judicature acts (1873-70, which has so simplified and made orderly the practice of English courts.
In the Cnited States the terms court of chan cery and chancery are used in some States as equivalent to courts of equity and equity. The principles and practice of equity were generally transferred to this country as they existed in England; but in most of the States there are no separate courts of chancery. the same judge sit ting, according to the nature of the case, either as a eommon-law or equity court. A few States, however, instituted courts of chancery under that name: these were Alabanm. Delaware. Elm- ill:1, itlississippi, New .Terser. Tennessee. and Ver mont. As early as 1818 the State of New York not only abolished the distinction between courts of equity and common law. lint did away with the old forms of practice in both.
Many of the States have followed this reform. By the foiled States Constitution Federal courts are especially given jurisdiction in equity as well as in (.1)1111)1011 law. and the distinction be tween procedure at law and equity has been maintained, though both systems are adminis tered by the same courts. (See EQ I" IT 1" PLEADENG: PnAcrIcE.1 Consult: Nerlv, His torical Sketch of the Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of ( Eng., 1890) ; Gilbert, History and Practice of the High Court of Chancery (1.ondom, 1758; first American edi tion. Washington, 1874); Marsh, History of the Court of Chancery and of the Rise and meat of the Doctrines of Equity (Toronto. 1890).