A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

1 887. Unlike the handwritten decrees of volumes A to Q, these are two-page
printed legal forms, patterned after the forms specified in Wood, Dubuc, and
Miller's Orders of the Queen's Bench in Equity, Wdh Forms. The decrees
display longhand only in the blank spaces reserved for data specific to the
particular case. Decrees for sale in the first volume, printed on blue paper, may
have existed originally as separate documents and been bound at a later date.
Pages of each decree are numbered, by hand, in space left for the purpose.
Decrees for sale in volumes two and three are printed on white bond paper.
These volumes employ paired page numbering, that is, the two pages of each
decree bear the same number. Decree for sale volumes are indexed.
Mortgage actions in Equity could, similarly, produce decrees for
foreclosure. Full legal description of this decree was 'Decree for foreclosure.
account taken by Registrar, with order for payment, and delivery of
p~ssession."~~ Following the plaintifs filing a bill of cornplaint, and the
defendant's failing to reply through answer or demurter, the court, through
decree, ordered the calculated amount to be paid to the plaintiff. Where the
defendant continued in default of payment he was 'absolutely debarred and
foreclosed of and from al1 equity of redernptioo in and to the said prernise~."~
Five foreclosure books span the period 1881 -89." All are entitled
Foreclosure Book, with the addition of volume number; the last three also show
Decree Without Reference as part of the spine title. Decrees for foreclosure.
like decrees for sale, are printed Iegal forms with spaces provided for data