A court formerly existing in England and still existing in several of the United States, which possesses an extensive equity jurisdiction. The name is said by some to be derived from that of the chief judge, who is called a chancellor; others derive both names directly from the cancelli (bars) which in this court anciently separated the press of poople from the officers. See 8 Bla. Com. 46, n.; Story, Eq. Jur. 40; CANCELLARIUS. In American Law. A court of general equity jurisdiction. The terms equity and chancery, court of equity and court of chancery, are constantly used as syn- onymous in the United States. It is presumed that this custom arises from the circumstance that the equity jurisdiction which is exercised by the courts of the various states is assimilated to that possessed by the English courts of chancery. Indeed, in some of the states it is made identical therewith by statute, so far as conformable to our institutions. Separate courts of chancery or equity exist in a few of the states; in others, the courts of law sit also as courts of equity; in others, equitable relief is administered under the forms of the common law; and in others, the distinction between law and equity has been formally abolished or never existed. The federal courts exercise an equity jurisdiction as understood in the English courts at the time of the revolu- tion; Miller, Const. U. S. 318; independent of local state law; id.; 2 Sumn. 401; and the remedies are not according to state practice but as distinguished and defined in that country from which we derive our knowl- edge of those principles; 3 Wheat. 211. whether the state courts in the district are courts of equity or not; 2 McLean 568; 15 Pet. 9; 11 How. 669. In English Law. Formerly the highest court of judicature next to parliament. Prior to the judicature acts it was the sup- erior court of chancery, called distinctively "The High Court of Chancery," and con- sisted of six separate tribunals, viz. the court of the lord high chancellor of Great Britain; the court of the master of the rolls, or keeper of the records in chancery; the court of appeal in chancery, the three separate courts of the vice-chancellors. The jurisdiction of this court was four- fold. The common-law or ordinary jurisdic- tion. By virtue of this the lord-chancellor was a privy councillor and prolocutor of the house of lords. The writs for a new parliament issued from this department. The Petty Bag Office was in this jurisdic- tion. It was a common-law court of rec- ord, in which pleas of scire facias to repeal letters-patent were exhibited, and many other matters were determined, and whence all original writs issued. See 11 & 12 Vict. c. 94; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 109. The statutory jurisdiction included the power which the lord-chancellor exercised under the habeas corpus act, and by which he inquired into charitable uses, but did not include the equitable jurisdiction. The specially delegated jurisdiction in- cluded the exclusive authority which the lord-chancellor and lords justices of appeal had over the persons and property of idiots and lunatics. The equity or extraordinary jurisdiction was either assistant or auxiliary to the com- mon law, including discovery for the pro- motion of substantial justice at the com- mon law, preservation of testimony of persons not litigants relating to suits or questions at law, removal of improper im- pediments and prevention of unconscien- tious defences at common law, giving effect to and relieving from the consequences of common-law judgments; concurrent with the common law, including the remedial correction of fraud, the prevention of fraud by injunction, accident, mistake, account, dower, interpleader, the delivery up of documents and specific chattels, the spe cific performance of agreements; or exclu- sive, relating to trusts, infancy, the equi- table rights of wives, legal and equitable mortgages, the assignment of choses in action, partition, the appointment of re- ceivers, charities, or public trusts. Whart. Law Dict. By the Judicature Acts (q. v.) this court was merged in the supreme court of judica- ture, and all its jurisdiction vested therein. The inferior courts of chancery are the equity courts of the Palatine Counties, the courts of the Two Universities, the lord- mayor's courts in the city of London, and the court of chancery in the Isle of Man. See 18 & 19 Vict. c. 48, and the titles of these various courts. Consult Story, Eq. Jur.; Dan. Ch. Pr.; Spence, Eq. Jur.; COURTS OF EQUITY; EQUITY.