About

The equity database project is a major joint project involving the National Archives, the Friends of the National Archives, the Transport History Research Trust and the Pilgrim Trust. The project provides easy access to records that paint a fascinating picture of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century life.

The project has uncovered a wealth of information on a great variety of subjects. Amongst these are manorial, domestic and trading disputes; and disputes over land purchase, apprenticeship agreements and the management of charities. Other subjects to be found are as varied as the slave trade; inland transport; women's property and financial rights, including their business activities; tithes; common rights and enclosure; coal and lead mines; drunkenness; entrepreneurial activities - and much, much more!

Many cases are testamentary, showing the workings of trusts or marriage settlements, or perhaps containing inventories or estate accounts. Others concern mortgages, or debts - the latter involving issues as different as trading in stocks and shares, and gambling debts. Ships and shipping figure largely; with details of trading and cargoes, with insurance, with ships taken by privateers, or perhaps with the grievances and concerns of crews.

For details of the variety of subjects within the documents in the database we are indebted to a forthcoming article by Mary Clayton, entitled The Wealth of Riches to be found in the Court of Chancery: Chancery Pleadings and the Equity Database Project.

Background to the production of the database

The equity records in Chancery and elsewhere have long been known to contain wonderful material, but material difficult to access, due to poor cataloguing. These are documents providing rich sources of information for many aspects of historical study, particularly legal, social and economic history; as well as providing fruitful genealogical sources.

A decision was taken, therefore, that a project would be undertaken to begin to remedy this situation. The series that was taken as the starting point for this was C 6, because the extant finding aids were particularly sparse. The series title for this is Court of Chancery, Six Clerks Office: Pleadings before 1714, Collins. The Six Clerks administered the process of pleadings entered in Chancery, and this series comprises the cases cleared out of the office of one of the Six Clerks, John Collins (a Six Clerk from 1716 to 1753), in about 1723. The dates actually covered by the documents in the database are 1606 to 1722, although most cases date after 1648. The documents are arranged in bundles, with each bundle containing several cases, each with its own number. Documents are thus cited in the format C 6/41/109, and this two-part number is used for citing and calling up the document.

For pieces 1 to 359 basic indexes existy, giving the plaintiff, defendant, date and county, and a very brief subject description, such as a place or a manor, "money", "will of X" or "estate of X". These are not easy to use, especially if you know only the defendant's name. From piece 360 no indexes exist, although there is a very rudimentary manuscript list available. Neither the traditional paper lists, nor the National Archives' online catalogue, contains any details about the individual documents in this series.

A database to input the C 6 data was set up, and the inputting was done by two separate methods. Volunteers from among the Friends of the National Archives prepared data from the indexes mentioned above for C 6/1-359, and this was input by National Archives staff. (This part is not completely finished yet, and inputting is ongoing). For these pieces no further data was added. The second method was the project to deal with piece 360 onwards, funded by the Transport History Research Trust, the Pilgrim Trust and the National Archives. An editor was employed for two years to input data from the original documents, and the information given was much more detailed that with the earlier pieces. At the end of the two years the series was input to C 6/419/121.

If you are interested in finding out more about the administration and records of equity the National Archives has published a handbook on this subject. (Henry Horwitz, Chancery Equity Records and Proceedings 1600-1800 (PRO Handbook 27, 1995).

What the database contains and how to use it

Something over 30,000 cases from C 6 are now entered on the database, and are easily searched.

The database has five screens. If you have a document reference you may enter this at Search by Piece Reference.

Search by Case Short Details allows you to enter a name under plaintiff and defendant. This is also the screen on which you may enter dates.

At the Search by Persons screen a surname and forename(s) may be entered, also M or F for sex, the type of person (such as plaintiff or defendant), a title (such as duke or earl), an office (such as alderman or treasurer), an occupation, status (such as lunatic or minor), and role. This last is the person's role within the case, such as testator.

Search by Places allows for a search by country, by county or other territorial unit if overseas, by place, and by location. This last field is for the smallest of topographical units, such as a named inn or a field. Placenames are being modernised where possible; this is an ongoing process.

Search by Subjects allows the entry of up to three keywords.

Data may be entered across as many screens as desired, and no field on any screen is mandatory. Some fields require data entry, and some have drop down menus. When you have all the data entered that you wish to insert press the Search button. As data is entered a search string is created at the top left of the screen, and this notes what you have entered as you move from screen to screen. The Clear button will remove this, as well as clearing all fields. Surname, forename, place and the first subject keyword have a wildcard facility. There are help pages for each screen, and these should be used for further information and details.

The results screen gives you, for each hit, the piece reference, case name and dates. It also includes a link to the Catalogue, to enable you to order the document, if you wish.

Click on a piece reference to bring up details of all persons in the case, dates, places and the subject description. The case details screen also has useful extra information such as any cross references noted within the database, and whether the data is taken from the extant indexes, or from the original document. If you then click on any surname on this page, a further results screen comes up noting any title, office held, occupation etc for this person; also any aliases.