ons to the
council, and answers endorsed upon them, in the reign of Edward I.,
communicated to him by Mr. Hardy from the records of the Tower. In all
these the petitions are referred to the chancellor for justice. The
entry, at least as given by lord Campbell, is commonly so short that we
cannot always determine whether the petition was on account of wrongs by
the crown or others. The following is rather more clear than the
rest:--"18 Edw. I. The king's tenants of Aulton complain that Adam
Gordon ejected them from their pasture, contrary to the tenor of the
king's writ. Resp. Veniant partes coram cancellario, et ostendat ei Adam
quare ipsos ejecit, et fiat iis justitia." Another is a petition
concerning concealment of dower, for which, perhaps, there was no legal
remedy.

In the reign of Edward II. the peculiar jurisdiction of the chancellor
was still more distinctly marked. "From petitions and answers lately
discovered, it appears that during this reign the jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery was considerably extended, as the 'consuetudo
cancellariae' is often familiarly mentioned. We find petitions referred
to the chancellor in his court, either separately, or in conjunction
with the king's justices, or the king's serjeants; on disputes
respecting the wardship of infants, partition, dower, rent-charges,
tithes, and goods of felons. The chancellor was in full possession of
his jurisdiction over charities, and he superintended the conduct of
coroners. Mere wrongs, such as malicious prosecutions and trespasses to
personal property, are sometimes the subject of proceedings before him;
but I apprehend that those were cases where, from powerful combinations
and confederacies, redress could not be obtained in the courts of common
law." (Lives of Chanc. vol. i. p. 204.)

Lord Campbell, still with materials furnished by Mr. Hardy, has given
not less than thirty-eight entries during the reign of Edward II., where
the petition, though sometimes directed to the council, is referred to
the chancellor for determination. One only of these, so far as we can
judge from their very brief expression, implies anything of an equitable
jurisdiction. It is again a case of dower, and the claimant is remitted
to the Chancery; "et fiat sibi ibidem justitia, quia non potest juvari
per communem legem per breve de dote." This case is in the Rolls of
Parliament (i. 340), and had been previously mentioned by Mr. Bruce in a
learned memoir on the