New York State Court of Chancery Register's Minutes of Decrees

Rough chronological order by date of issuance.

This series consists of copies of decrees and special orders (orders made on special application to the court) issued by the Chancellor.

The decrees in this series include those appointing court officers, establishing court rules, and providing relief to petitioners and complainants. Court rules required that all of the Chancellor's decrees be entered in separate books maintained by the Register. After 1840 decrees involving mortgage foreclosures that previously had been entered in this series were recorded in Register's Minutes of Foreclosure Decrees. The headings of the decrees and special orders contain the names of the complainant or petitioner or applicant and the defendant as well as the date the decree was issued. The main body of a decree generally contains the following information: what counties the parties resided in; the names of their solicitors; the name and findings of the Master handling the case; the particulars of the case, (i.e., amount of money involved, date and nature of actions taken in the case, description of property involved, and whether and from where a case was appealed; and the Chancellor's disposition of the case. The information in a special order generally includes the name of the party requesting the order; the reason for issuing the order; the substance of the order; and occasionally the particulars of the case.

Microfilm is available for use at the New York State Archives or through interlibrary loan.

J1049Series J1049, Register's Minutes of Foreclosure Decrees, contains decrees involving foreclosures after 1840 that had previously been entered in this series

J0063Series J0063, Chancellor's enrolled decrees after 1800

J0089Series J0089, Chancellor's draft decrees and orders

J0051Series J0051, Register's docket of decrees

J0057Series J0057, In re papers

J0070Series J0070, Chancery papers and

J0087Series J0087, Miscellaneous files, contain related records.

Alphabetical index by last name of complainant or petitioner in each volume.

The Court of Appeals placed these records on deposit at the Historical Documents Collection, Queens College, from 1973-1982.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.