Definition
Officers appointed in courts of equity (chancery courts) whose function was to take the testimony of witnesses in pending suits. An examiner in chancery administered oaths to witnesses, conducted examination through written interrogatories submitted by the parties, and recorded the witnesses' answers in writing. The examiner did not adjudicate — that remained with the chancellor — but served as the procedural mechanism through which sworn testimony was gathered outside open court.
Because chancery procedure did not traditionally allow live oral testimony before the chancellor in the manner of common law courts, the examiner filled a structural gap: testimony was taken in private, reduced to writing, and the written depositions were then submitted to the court for consideration.
Why It Matters in Research
This is an extinct office with no modern counterpart, which means researchers encountering the term in historical equity records, chancery court filings, or treatises must understand it as describing a procedural officer, not a judicial one. Confusing the examiner's role with that of a master in chancery or with the chancellor himself is a common interpretive error in historical equity research.
The office matters most when researching pre-merger equity practice (before the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure unified law and equity in 1938 at the federal level, and at varying dates in the states). Chancery records from colonial America, early American state courts, and English equity practice will reference examiners routinely. Understanding that the examiner controlled the written deposition process — and that testimony was not taken orally before the judge — is essential for interpreting the evidentiary record in those cases.
The written-interrogatory method also means that the substance of witness testimony in chancery proceedings is preserved differently than in common law records. Chancery examination records are often held separately from the main cause papers, and researchers may need to locate examiner's books or deposition files as a distinct archival category.
The truncated Bouvier entry references "2 Dan. Ch. Pr. 1006," which points to Daniel's Chancery Practice, a standard treatise on English equity procedure. That work is an important secondary source for understanding the examiner's duties in detail.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary defines examiners in chancery as officers who examine witnesses upon oath on interrogatories submitted by the parties, with the examiner administering the oath, posing interrogatories one at a time, and personally writing down the answers. Bouvier cites Cowell's law dictionary for the baseline definition and Daniel's Chancery Practice for procedural detail.
Bouvier's entry also preserves a historically significant point, though the text as transmitted is fragmentary: "Anciently, the examiner was one of the judges of the court." This reflects the evolution of the office from an earlier practice in which examination of witnesses was a judicial function, later delegated to a specialized subordinate officer as chancery procedure became more elaborate and caseloads grew. This evolution is characteristic of how equity courts generally developed — originally flexible and chancellor-centered, later increasingly proceduralized and staffed by subordinate officers.
The Bouvier entry's brevity is typical of historical dictionary treatment of this office. It conveys what the officer does but gives little guidance on the examiner's relationship to other chancery officers, the limits of the examiner's authority, or how examination procedure varied between English and American chancery practice. Researchers should consult Daniel's Chancery Practice and Story's Equity Pleading for more granular treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
The office existed in English chancery and was carried into American equity courts, but American adoption was uneven. Some early American states maintained examiners in chancery as a distinct office; others folded similar functions into the duties of masters in chancery or court clerks. After the merger of law and equity under modern procedural codes, the office disappeared entirely. Researchers working in specific state equity records should verify local practice rather than assuming uniform adoption of English chancery structure.