New York State Court of Chancery Register's Minute Books

Chronological by date of court sessions. Minute books starting May 1798 and engrossed minute books for period April 1802-September 1812 were numbered sequentially.

This series consists of minute books which serve as a chronological record of the proceedings in the Court of Chancery, including cases initiated by complaint or by petition. The minutes contain summaries or full texts of motions, orders, decretal orders, and final decrees, as well as entries of other actions by the court. Series includes, for various time ranges, rough minutes, final minutes, engrossed minutes, and some loose sheets of minutes. The minutes were created and maintained by the Register.

The date, location, and name of the Chancellor are given for each session of the court. The names of the parties and their attorneys, summaries of motions and arguments and documents read or submitted, and actions taken by the court are recorded for cases heard at the session. The minutes include the texts or summaries of Chancellor's orders in matters before the court, including procedural orders and final determinations. Also included are the minutes of proceedings in which court officials were appointed, attorneys admitted to practice, court rules adopted, court terms scheduled, and other court business not related to cases was conducted. These minutes give a fairly detailed account of business transacted in court.

The minutes for 1781-1783 record the proceedings of Court of Chancery held in New York City with the Royal Governor acting as Chancellor. After 1779 that court co-existed with the State Court of Chancery established by the Constitution of 1777. The minutes were transferred to the Register of the State Court of Chancery in 1789 and were maintained with the later minutes of that court. There are no minutes for the state Court of Chancery for the years 1778-1783.

Series consists of loose sheets (1784-1786) and thereafter volumes. The minute books contain rough minutes, with many insertions and strikeouts (1787-1799, 1806-1808), final texts of minutes in uniform handwriting (1799-1829), and engrossed minutes (1802-1812). State Archives staff have disbound most of the bound volumes for the purpose of microfilming.

J0059-82: Volumes contain guardianship proceedings. Those found in volumes 1 (1781-1783), 1A (1784), 13 (1796), and 19 (Sept. 1806-Jan. 1808) are abstracted and indexed in Kenneth Scott, "Records of the Chancery Court Province and State of New York: Guardianships 1691-1815" (New York: 1971).

J0059-82: Microfilmed by New York State Archives in 1989. Microfilm starts with minutes for 1784; volume for 1781-1783 was not filmed. Microfilm copies are available at the Archives and through interlibrary loan. Minute book labeled "No. III," containing entries between Dec. 3, 1799 and Feb. 12, 1801, was microfilmed by the New York County Clerk's Office in 1958 and is not available for interlibrary loan.

J0059-17: Microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1953. The microfilm includes images of original bindings and labels that were discarded before the minute books were microfilmed by the State Archives. The GSU microfilm has been partly digitized, and the images can be accessed online at Family Search Affiliate Libraries (including the New York State Archives and New York State Library). The GSU microfilm and digital images are cataloged under the author "New York Chancery Court," microfilm roll numbers 17418-17438. Microfilm is not available for interlibrary loan.

J0049Series J0049, Register's minute books of decrees

J0069Series J0069, Register's rough minute books

J0053Series J0053, Register's minute books of guardians, committees, and receivers

J0072Series J0072, Register's registers of causes

J0090Series J0090, Register's order and minute books

Series J0095, Clerk's registers of causes

Series JN319, Register's and Assistant Register's minute books

Series JN321, Clerk's registers of causes

Series JN322, Assistant Register's rough minute books.

Alphabetical index by name of complainant or petitioner in almost volumes.

Volume list and microfilm roll list are available at the repository.

Engrossed minute books numbered 3, 4, and 5 were formerly cataloged as series J1059. They have been returned to series J0059, where engrossed minute books numbers 1 and 2 are filed.

J0059-82: Minute book labeled "No. III," transferred by Unified Court System in 2017, has been determined to be part of this series and was added to this accretion.

J0059-82: Assembled and organized by staff of the Court of Appeals, which maintained records of the Register of the Court of Chancery after the court was abolished effective July 1, 1847. The Court of Appeals placed these records on deposit at the Historical Documents Collection, Queens College, from about 1966 to 1982.

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