The chancellor's jurisdiction was an off-ehoot from that of the king's council. It does not appear that he had any individual judicial functions otherwise than as one of the council; he certainly acquired power to sit alone, or had it confirmed, in 1349, but this did not forthwith exclude the older practice. Pollock, Expans. of C. L. 68.
But whatever the origin of the title, It is not diffi cult to apprehend the development of the janitor or keeper of the 'gate, acting as intermediary be tween the suitor and the king or judge, into the officer whose judgment was relied on in dealing with the petition, and how the original scribe or ref erendarius, exercising at first clerical functions, but selected for them because it required legal learning to discharge them, gradually developed Into the chancellor of modern conception, holding the seal and representing the conscience of the king. The fact that it is an evolution is clear, how ever obscure and difficult to trace are some of its successive stages.
Lord Ellesmere, who is practically the first chan cellor whose decrees have come down to us, was the most conspicuous representative of the period of the Tudors and the first Stuarts. He did much towards settling the practice and procedure of the court. He successfully fought the great fight with Coke over the supremacy of the chancellor's writ of injunction, and during the period from Ellesmere to the Resto ration the real foundation was laid of an equitable system modifying ancient common law principles and practices which no longer agreed with current views of justice; 15 Harv. L. Rev. 110. Instances of specific relief, under what became in after times the great heads of equity, may nevertheless be found at a surprisingly early day. The editor of the Selden Society's volume of Select Cases in Chan cery gives the following list of the earliest cases: Accident, after 1398; account, 1385 ; cancellation and delivery of instruments, 1337 ; charities, after 1393; discovery, 1415-17; dower, 1393 ; duress, 1337 ; fraud, 1386; injunctions, 1396-1403 ; mistake, 1417-24; mortgage, 1456 ; partition, 1423-43; perpetuation of testimony, 1486-1500; rescission of contract, 1396 1403 ; specific performance, after 1398; trusts, after 1393 ; waste, 1461-67 ; wills, after 1393.
In his efforts to establish some sort of fixed prac tice, Lord Ellesmere frequently referred to prece dents, but numerous instances of his vicarious charity reveal the latitude of his discretion. In the
Earl of Oxford's Case, 2 W. & T. 644, he expressly claimed the power to legislate on individual rights. The Restoration, or rather the chancellorship of Lord Nottingham, marks an epoch in the history of equity, of which he has been -justly called the "fa ther." The interference of the chancellors had been instrumental in bringing about, through legislation and otherwise, a steady improvement in common law practice and procedure, and the necessity for further intervention, except where there was an avowed divergence between the two systems, had become rare. Then the abolition of the incidents of feudal tenure by the Restoration Parliament Intro duced a system of real property which continued almost to the reign of Victoria. Controversies aris ing out of these new methods of conveyancing and settlement naturally found their way into chancery, where alone trusts and equities of redemption were recognized and contracts specifically enforced; sod the contemporaneous abolition of the Court of Wards ultimately turned the guardianship' of the estates of infants, into chancery. Moreover, the searching investigations which had been made during the Com monwealth exercised a powerful influence in the direction of reform in procedure. All these influ ences combined to form a new era in equity. Prior to the Restoration, it could be said with entire ac curacy that the "grand reason for the interference of a court of equity is the imperfection of the legal remedy in consequence of the universality of legis lative provisions." But during the period from Nottingham to Eldon the chancellor was chiefly oc cupied with the adjudication and administration of proprietary, rights. At the close of Lord Eldon's service, equity was no longer a system corrective of the common law ; its principles were no less uni versal than those of the common law. It could be described only as that part of remedial justice which was administered in chancery; its work was administrative and protective, as contrasted with the remedial and retributive justice of the common law. See 15 Harv. L. Rev. 109.
See 4 Co. Inst. 78 ; Dugdale Orig. Jur. fol. 34 ; and generally Selden, Discourses; Inderwick, King's Peace ; 3 Steph. Com. 346; 1 Poll. & Maitl. 172 ; 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist. 381; Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. 1; Holdsw. Hist. E. L. ; Expans. of C. L. See CHANCELLOR; EQUITY.