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A26141 An enquiry into the jurisdiction of the Chancery in causes of equity ... humbly submitted to the consideration of the House of Lords, to whom it belongeth to keep the inferiour courts within their bounds / by Sir Robert Atkyns, Knight ... ; to which is added, The case of the said Sir Robert Atkyns upon his appeal against a decree obtained by Mrs. Elizabeth Took and others, plaintiffs in Chancery, about a separate maintenance of 200£ per annum, &c. Atkyns, Robert, Sir, 1621-1709. 1695 (1695) Wing A4137; ESTC R16409 49,475 54

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Statutes were made but to no very great purpose for means were found out to evade them At last came forth the Stat. of 27 H. 8. cap. 10. and this undertook and plainly so intended to pluck up this unwholsome Weed by the Roots Which good Law first reciting the excellent quiet and repose that Men's Estates had by the wholsome Rules of the Common Law but cunning Men had sought out new Inventions by fraudulent Feofments and Conveyances craftily made to secret Uses and Trusts to the utter subversion of the ancient Common Laws of this Realm as the Preamble speaks for the utter EXTIRPATING and EXTINGUISHMENT of all such subtil practis'd Feofments Abuses and Errors It is Enacted That the Possession of the Land shall be in him that hath the Use and that he shall have the like Estate in the Land as he had in the Use. How strangely hath all this good Intention Pains and Care been made of little or no effect and the mischiefs still continued by a distinction invested between Trusts and Uses directly against the often repeated Clauses and manifest plain meaning and express words of this good Act For thô the Judges of the Common Law were now by this Act to judge of Uses which before was the work of the Chancery they being now converted by this Act into Estates at Law Yet some Men perfectly to elude this good Act have confidently maintain'd asserted and allow'd a distinction between an Use and a Trust. And thô they are content because they cannot help it that the Judges of the Common Law may determine of Uses the Courts of Equity shall hold a Jurisdiction in matters of Trust. And most of the great Estates in England have by colour of this fallen under their determination and controulment and now have a dependence upon a Jurisdiction of Equity Whereas Were there the least colour left by that Act of 27. H. 8. for any distinction between an Use and a Trust as most certainly and plainly there is none yet as certainly and clearly that Act of Parliament meant to extirpate those Trusts as well as Uses as any ordinary Capacity well perusing that Statute to this purpose may easily perceive I humbly and heartily beg that favour of every Lord to read over deliberately this Stat. of 27 H. 8. cap. 10. for this very purpose for it will plainly discover this gross abuse As to the length of time wherein such a Power and Jurisdiction of Equity hath been exercised in the Chancery yet it plainly appears not to be grounded upon Prescription the Original being known and not so very ancient neither and modest too and moderate at first as most such are in the beginning and having from the first starting of it been hunted and pursued with full Cry and upon a fresh Scent and in view and having hardly any Colour of an Act of Parliament That length of time were it much longer would be no Plea for it See Dr. Barrow in his Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy pag. 154. He that has no right says he to the thing that he possesses cannot plead any length of time to make his possession lawful King Henry VIII by Acts of Parliament restored the Regal Ecclesiastical Sovereignty after it had been usurp'd upon by the Popes and their Prelates near 400 years that is from the time of William the Conquerour For then began their Encroachment And the Act of Parliament of 1 E. 6. C. 2. Sect. 3. calls it a power that had been Usurp'd by the Bishop of Rome contrary to the Form and Order of the Common Law used in this Realm in high derogation to the King 's Royal Prerogative from whence we may observe That Usurping upon the Common Law and Usurping upon the King's Prerogative go together The Bishops Courts here in England took their Original from a Charter of William the Conquerour so that this Jurisdiction was a great Limb lopp'd off from the Primitive Common Law of England For before that Charter of King William Ecclesiastical Causes were determin'd in the Hundred Court and not by Witnesses only and not by the Canon Law but by the Law of the Countrey But this Charter was made by advice of the arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Princes and Temporal Lords See Fox his Acts and Monuments Vol. 〈◊〉 Lib. 4. pag. 2●… says Mr. P●…inn in his first Tome of his Vindication of the Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of our English Kings The Charter it self says he recites that it was done Communi Concilio for which he cites Seldeni ad Eadmerum Notae pag. 167 168. So that still the old Common Law of England hath been upon the losing hand The Civilians hold that Possessor malae fidei ullo tempore non praescribit yet I heartily concur with that Reverend Chief Justice Sir Edw. Coke a most true and hearty lover of his Countrey and an high honour to and honourer of the Profession of the Common Law in his 4 Instit. 246. at the end of that folio in Respect says that Good and Great Man that this Court of Equity hath had some continuance and many Decrees made by it it were worthy of the Wisdom of a Parliament for some Establishment to be had therein and to this intent have I chiefly used this freedom for I never loved Quiet a movere but in order to a better Security And for that end I chuse to make this Humble Address to the House of Lords It is the House of Lords who are theSupreme Court of Justice that can set the true and legal Bounds and Limits to the Jurisdiction of Inferiour Courts and can say to the biggest of them Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed And such their Judicial Declarations are not to be controul'd by any but the Legislative Power Almighty God gave a strict charge to his own chosen People of Israel to observe those Ordinances and Laws which he gave them by Moses which were very particular and wherein nothing was left to the Discretion of the Magistrate nor had the Magistrate any Latitude whereby he could depart from the plain and common sence and Judge Secundum Aequum Bonum Arbitrarily But they were commanded Deut. 4. 2. Yee shall put nothing to the word which I command you says God by Moses neither shall ye take ought therefrom and the 12 Deut. the last verse in Cases of Difficulty that might arise upon the Construction of those Ordinances and Laws a Provision is made by Almighty God that in such Cases resort should be had to the Priest and to the Judge who should declare the Sentence of Judgment This seems to refer to some special Revelation of the mind of God in such difficult Cases which God made known to the Priest that stood before the Lord to minister 17 Deut. 8 ●…2 verses but here was nothing entrusted with the Priest or Judge of relieving against the pretended rigour or extremity of the Law in
AN ENQUIRY INTO THE JURISDICTION OF THE CHANCERY IN Causes of Equity I. Upon what Ground and Foundation that Jurisdiction is Built II. At what time the Chancery began to Exercise that Jurisdiction and upon what Occasion III. How Modest and Moderate the Exercise of it was at first IV. How wonderfully it is Grown and Enlarged And V. What is the best Remedy for Restoring and Maintaining the Common Law Humbly submitted to the Consideration of the House of Lords to whom it belongeth to keep the Inferiour Courts within their Bounds By Sir ROBERT ATKYNS Knight of the Honourable Order of the BATH To which is added The CASE of the said Sir Robert Atkyns upon his Appeal against a Decree obtained by Mrs. Elizabeth Took and others Plaintiffs in Chancery about a separate Maintenance of 200 l. per Annum c. London Printed in the Year 1695. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS Spiritual and Temporal IN Parliament Assembled My Lords THE following Treatise together with the state of the Case annex'd to it is Humbly Presented to your Lordships to whom it properly belongs the Subject matter of both relating to that Supream Jurisdiction in Cases of Appeals from Courts of Equity which is exercis'd by your Lordships as being the last Resort Your Lordships being also the true and just Moderators in all Disputes between other Courts in points of Jurisdiction you having the Coercive and Directive Power of keeping the rest of the Courts within their due Bounds set them by the Law and Constitution of the Nation that they do not Overflow their Banks nor Usurp nor Encroach one upon another Your Lordships besides have a more peculiar Right and Title to the Service of the Composer of this Treatise who hath had the Honour to serve your Lordships for some Years and in several Parliaments in an Eminent Station and with a large Testimony and favourable Acceptance from your Lordships as appears by that hearty and kind Address which your Lordships made on his behalf besides his ordinary Attendance and Assistance as one of the Judges which he began about Four and twenty years since If what he hath written seem too free and plain he hopes he is excuseable the Necessity and Importance of the Case so requires And he may be allowed a more than common Zeal for the Common Law he having sat so many Years as a Judge in several of the Courts in Westminster-Hall he himself and his Three immediate Ancestors having been of the Profession for near Two hundred Years and in Judicial places and through the Blessing of Almighty God have Prospered by it His Great Grandfather living in the time of King Henry VII and they all have in their several turns undergone the Charge and Labour of Readers of Lincolns-Inn And your Lordships and your Noble Ancestors have always and upon many great Occasions constantly Testified a true and hearty Zeal for the Common Law of England as will largely be manifested by this Treatise and the Conclusion of the stated Case annexed to it The only Design of this Treatise being meerly to Assist and Serve your Lordships in your Discharge of that Mighty Trust reposed in your Lordships to whom the Treatise and Case is entirely submitted by My Lords Your Lordship 's most Humble And Faithful Servant Robert Atkyns AN ENQUIRY INTO THE Jurisdiction of the CHANCERY IN Causes of Equity c. IT cannot nor as to the present Occasion and Enquiry it need not be denied but that the Names of Chancellor and Chancery are very Ancient not only in Foreign Countries but even in this Nation both in the times of the Saxons and continued from thence down to our times But our proper business at present is to Enquire what those Great and High Names did at first import and signifie and what Change hath been introduced in their signification by process of time derived down to this present Age. Sir Henry Spelman that Learned Antiquary in his Glossary printed in the year 1687. pag. 109. gives us a Series of the Chancellors in this Nation and begins with Turketulus Chancellor to Edward the Elder as he is called in our History of the Saxon times in the year of our Lord 924. near 800 years since Rembaldus was Chancellor to Edward the Confessor Roll. Abr. Tit. Chancellor 1 part 384. Sir Francis Bacon sometime Lord Chancellor of England in his Resus●…itatio at the end of that Book sets down a Catalogue of our Chancellors beginning with Mauritius in the time of our William the First Anno 1067. And Dugdale in his Origines Juridiciales gives the same See Sir Edw. Cooke 4 In●…tit 78. in the Chapter of the Chancery are the Names of several Chancellors n ancient times This shews the Antiquity of the Names but our business is to learn the Nature of them and what their Business and Employment was at first and when and how it changed Nomen ab Officio We may learn what the latter the Officium is from the Name so that the Nomen may be a true Notamen of the thing as it ought to be The Name of an Office or Employment generally imports the most eminent and noted part of the Employment though it consists of divers parts Cowel in his Interpreter upon the word Chancellor deduces it from Cancellare id est Literas vel scriptum line â per medium deductâ damnare Which as the word now in use with us is to Cancel or make void and it is performed by drawing cross Lines over the Letters Patents or other Writings to signifie they are made void and are to be of no farther use And this 't is likely was borrowed from the Lettices of Wood or Iron laid Croswise one over another to divide or enclose one part of a Room from the rest of that Room so that a Man might see through them within which Inclosure the Judge or Officer sate so as to be seen and spoken with but yet defended from the press of those that resorted to them As it is used in Churches where the Chancel is divided from the Body of the Church and the Clergy from the People in the first design of that partition And this rather relates to the place called the Chancery than to the Chancellor But from the resemblance of this partition the word is also applied to the Office or Duty of the Chancellor which was Cancellare to draw cross Lines over a Writing that is to Cancel it From hence it may be collected that at first the Chancellors principal Imployment was to Cancel Writings for he had his Name from it And Cowel cites Lupanus as testifying the same That the Name of Cancellarius was belonging to every Register who also was styled Grapharius a Scribe a writer of Writs or Actuary a Register of the Acts and Proceeding of a Court not a Judge but an Officer attending upon Judges Qui conscribendis Judicum actis dat operam It appears by Sir