EXCHEQUER, Coua'r OF. An English law court of great antiquity and importance, wherein matters relating to the royal revenues were adju diented. It is said to have existed from the early times of the Conquest, and is supposed to have been denominated the 'exchequer' from the fact that a chequered cloth was wont to he laid upon the table of the mart. tinder the Norman kings it was a branch of the A ala Begin, or Great Council of the Nation. From the reign of Henry M. its existence as a separate court was recognized. Its special business continued to he the decision of revenue eases, but from an early period the court showed a tendency to extend its jurisdiction over the ordinary litigious business — the common pleas — of the country. This was done by establishing the fiction that all lieges were the Crown's debtors, whereby the Court of Exchequer acquired a concurrent juris diction with the other courts of 'mammon Resides its common-law jurisdiction, the Ex chequer was distinguished from the king's Bench and Court of Common Pleas by having an equity side; but this was abolished in 1841, and its equitable jurisdiction transferred to the Court of Chancery. The judges of the Exchequer consist
ed originally of the Lord Treasurer, the Chancel lor of the Exchequer, and three puisne judges (these last being called barons of the exchequer). The Chancellor of the Exchequer sat only on the equity side of the court; he has not been called upon to exercise his judicial functions since 1735. The Court of Exchequer was abol ished as a separate i'ourt by the Judicature Act of 1873, and its jurisdiction transferred to the newly created High Court of Justice. Sec Bmwx; CURIA REGIS.