Inns of chancery

Inn \Inn\ ([i^]n), n. [AS. in, inn, house, chamber, inn, from
   AS. in in; akin to Icel. inni house. See {In}.]
   1. A place of shelter; hence, dwelling; habitation;
      residence; abode. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            Therefore with me ye may take up your inn
            For this same night.                  --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A house for the lodging and entertainment of travelers or
      wayfarers; a tavern; a public house; a hotel.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: As distinguished from a private boarding house, an inn
         is a house for the entertainment of all travelers of
         good conduct and means of payment, as guests for a
         brief period, not as lodgers or boarders by contract.
         [1913 Webster]

               The miserable fare and miserable lodgment of a
               provincial inn.                    --W. Irving.
         [1913 Webster]

   3. The town residence of a nobleman or distinguished person;
      as, Leicester Inn. [Eng.]
      [1913 Webster]

   4. One of the colleges (societies or buildings) in London,
      for students of the law barristers; as, the Inns of Court;
      the Inns of Chancery; Serjeants' Inns.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Inns of chancery} (Eng.), colleges in which young students
      formerly began their law studies, now occupied chiefly bp
      attorn`ys, solocitors, etc.

   {Inns of court} (Eng.), the four societies of "students and
      practicers of the law of England" which in London exercise
      the exclusive right of admitting persons to practice at
      the bar; also, the buildings in which the law students and
      barristers have their chambers. They are the Inner Temple,
      the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Chancery \Chan"cer*y\, n. [F. chancellerie, LL. cancellaria,
   from L. cancellarius. See {Chancellor}, and cf.
   {Chancellery}.]
   1. In England, formerly, the highest court of judicature next
      to the Parliament, exercising jurisdiction at law, but
      chiefly in equity; but under the jurisdiction act of 1873
      it became the chancery division of the High Court of
      Justice, and now exercises jurisdiction only in equity.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. In the Unites States, a court of equity; equity;
      proceeding in equity.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: A court of chancery, so far as it is a court of equity,
         in the English and American sense, may be generally, if
         not precisely, described as one having jurisdiction in
         cases of rights, recognized and protected by the
         municipal jurisprudence, where a plain, adequate, and
         complete remedy can not be had in the courts of common
         law. In some of the American States, jurisdiction at
         law and in equity centers in the same tribunal. The
         courts of the United States also have jurisdiction both
         at law and in equity, and in all such cases they
         exercise their jurisdiction, as courts of law, or as
         courts of equity, as the subject of adjudication may
         require. In others of the American States, the courts
         that administer equity are distinct tribunals, having
         their appropriate judicial officers, and it is to the
         latter that the appellation courts of chancery is
         usually applied; but, in American law, the terms equity
         and court of equity are more frequently employed than
         the corresponding terms chancery and court of chancery.
         --Burrill.
         [1913 Webster]

   {Inns of chancery}. See under {Inn}.

   {To get (or to hold) In chancery} (Boxing), to get the head
      of an antagonist under one's arm, so that one can pommel
      it with the other fist at will; hence, to have wholly in
      One's power. The allusion is to the condition of a person
      involved in the chancery court, where he was helpless,
      while the lawyers lived upon his estate.
      [1913 Webster]