Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of notes of issue filed with the Register or Assistant Register. The court rules required a solicitor to file a note of issue at least four days before the beginning of a court term or his case would not be scheduled for a hearing.

Each note of issue contains the names of the parties involved in a case, the names of their solicitors, the date and method by which the case was opened (i.e. bill and answer, pleading and proof, bill confessed), and the date the note was filed. Notes filed after 1830 indicated if the case is appealed from a Vice Chancellor or Surrogate's Court and the priority classification of the case (1st classbills taken as confessed; 2nd class - plea and demurrer; 3rd class - bill and answer; 4th class - pleading and proof). Notes occasionally contain information on more than one case and a number of the notes after 1830 are for cases to be heard by the Vice Chancellor of the 3rd Circuit, for whom the Register acted as clerk.