Definition
A court of special jurisdiction in English law, held before the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or his deputy, exercising equity jurisdiction over matters relating to lands held of the Crown in right of the Duchy of Lancaster. Caster is not a court of common law but of equity, and its subject matter is confined to disputes arising from the peculiar tenure of Duchy lands. Its authority derives from the ancient administrative structure of the Duchy, which maintained a separate legal identity from the general royal estates even after the accession of the Lancaster line to the throne.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One who casts; to act as a caster.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who casts stones, cannon, or accounts; also a small condiment vessel for the table, a stand for such vessels, or a small swiveling wheel supporting furniture.
The common word "caster" carries no legal weight and shares nothing substantively with the English legal term. A researcher encountering "caster" in a historical legal document or case abstract should not assume any connection to the ordinary meanings of the word. The legal sense is a proper institutional name, not a descriptive common term.
Common Confusion
Caster is sometimes confused with the Court of Chancery or with other specialized equity tribunals. The distinction is jurisdictional and geographic: Caster's equity authority extends only to Duchy of Lancaster lands, while the Court of Chancery exercised general equitable jurisdiction over England. Researchers should also note that Burrill's entry cross-references Hustings, a separate court with no functional overlap — that reference appears to reflect an editorial organizational note in Burrill rather than any substantive connection between the two institutions.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are unlikely to encounter "Caster" as a standalone entry in general legal databases or modern case digests — the court's jurisdiction was narrow and its modern operational significance is minimal. The term surfaces primarily in historical English legal materials, particularly those touching on Duchy of Lancaster tenure and administration.
Key traps for corpus researchers:
First, the term is orthographically indistinct from the common English word "caster," so keyword searches will generate substantial noise. Filtering by legal context — duchy, Lancaster, equity, chancellor — is essential.
Second, the court's jurisdictional basis in Duchy tenure means relevant documents may be catalogued under Duchy of Lancaster administrative records rather than under court or equity headings. Researchers should cross-search under "Duchy of Lancaster" and "Chancellor of the Duchy" to locate primary materials.
Third, the Duchy of Lancaster retains a legal identity to this day as a Crown estate, and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster remains a cabinet office in the United Kingdom. Historical references to the office may overlap with, but are distinct from, references to the court's equity function.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three historical dictionaries agree on the core description: Caster is a court of special equity jurisdiction, held by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or his deputy, with authority over matters relating to Duchy lands. Black's and Bouvier's are closely aligned in language, both characterizing the court as a tribunal of equity rather than common law. Bouvier's entry, though truncated in the available text, appears to have continued with the distinction between equity and common law jurisdiction — consistent with Black's formulation.
Burrill's is the least developed of the three, offering little more than a cross-reference to Hustings with an apparent editorial note. This cross-reference is not self-explanatory and likely reflects Burrill's organizational scheme rather than any doctrinal connection between the two courts. Researchers relying on Burrill alone would be underserved by the entry.
None of the three dictionaries address the procedural relationship between Caster and the Court of Chancery, nor do they clarify the historical periods during which Caster was actively exercising jurisdiction. This is a gap in the historical dictionary record for researchers needing temporal precision.
Blackstone's Commentaries (3 Bl. Comm. 78), cited by Black's, remains the most accessible primary authority for the court's description and is the appropriate starting point for deeper research into Caster's structure and history.
Jurisdictional Note
Caster is an institution of English law with no counterpart in American jurisprudence. The Duchy of Lancaster has no equivalent in United States legal history, and neither the court nor its jurisdictional framework migrated to any American legal system. Researchers working in U.S. sources will not encounter Caster as an operative institution.