1842 Legal Term Help!

[LindaTrent]

Hi Guys,

I decided to ask on the AC board because I figured someone will know the answer. :D

I'm basically done with a 143 page family history, based upon my own research. My one remaining goal is to figure out a term used in an 1842 Clerk of County Courts Chancery Record, that's in my book.

The case is a dispute over the eldest son having cared for the father, and in return was to receive certain things by contract. Apparently the rest of the family disputed his care of father and well... he took them to court.

Anyway, the majority of the case is up on my webpage at http://lindatrent.homestead.com/ElishasSuit.html

If you scroll all the way to the bottom, it's the very last sentence in bold and underlined.

"J.J. Coombs Sol for Compll." What is Sol for Compll? Is the Sol, Solicitor? but what about the Compll?

Thanks in advance,

Linda.

[pambryda]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

My guess? Solicitor for Complainant.

Pam Kingsley-Bryda

[jacobite8749]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Mrs Trent,

I believe it is Solicitor for Complaints, see below, in a way kind of British, or at least English law speak, as we also have Solicitor for Oaths, etc

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/newsletr/jan01.htm

"Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Nebraska. Abram Poole & James Sherman versus The West Point Butter & Cheese Association, et al. Published abstract of testimony, 1886. (Clinton N. Powell was the Solicitor for Complaints, Omaha, Nebraska, and L. A. Gould, Esq., Counsel, New York City.)"

[LindaTrent]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Thanks guys,

That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to hear someone else say it first. ;)

Linda.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Any chance there was a tax issue, involving the 'Comptroller'?

If you suspect I haven't a clue, you're probaby right -- just thought that might be another possibility.

[Matt_E_Wright]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Solicitor kind of makes sense.

There use to be a common split, which only a few states maintain today (Arkansas, Tennessee, New Jersey, Mississippi, etc.), between courts of law and courts of equity (sometimes referred to as chancery). The split dates back to the old english common law when courts of law only heard complaints that fit into a particular category of writ (like habeas corpus, assumpsit, trespass, "trespass on the case" and so on) while courts of equity however could hear almost any case, and had a lot more leeway than courts of law to craft remedies to fit the facts of particular situations - in other words the courts of law were more tightly bound by precedent than courts of equity which were free to grant "equitable" remedies. In the federal courts, and in most states today, there is no distinction between law and equity.

Anyway I bring all this up because lawyers in courts of law were generally referred to as attorneys and lawyers in courts of equity were given the title "solicitor"

Hope this helps,
Matt Wright

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Hey ya'll-

Even today in South Carolina, the "District Attorney" of a particular county is called the "Solicitor" and it is a publicly-elected position.

Thanks- Johnny

[Craig L Barry]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Solicitor is an older term but it is a synonym for "attorney". The way we might use "counsellor" or "lawyer" today.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: 1842 Legal Term Help!

Hallo!

Ah, the vestiges of English Common Law... ;)
And the tail end of the barrister and solicitor "split system."

In the "English system" solicitors are "attorneys," standing in the place of their clients for legal purposes, and conducting litigation Barristers are not attorneys and cannot do litigation.

Curt