A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

time. In 1981, the archives established a govemment records programme
through which the creation and retention of govemment records were forrnalized
and scheduled. During that year 8000 boxes and 1500 bound volumes,
retrieved from various courthouses, were canveyed to the Provincial Archives.
lncluded in this massive transfer were the records of Court of Queen's Bench in
Equity. They comprised approximately 1 15 boxes of case files and 45 bound
registers, materials whose creation had spanned the years 1872-1 895.
Creation of the records depended upon legislation for its impetus. The
fact that Equity was wnstituted as a part of Queen's Bench meant that it too
would be a court of record. Records were identified in legislation which stated
that the referee-in-charnbers was to have "full power to administer oaths, to take
affidavits, to receive affirmations, and ta examine parties and witnesses, as the
court may direct."' In this provision the administration of equitable justice was
linked to the creation of particular foms of records.*
The tradition of Equity Court record keeping had been well established in
England for some centuries. The English style and often the English substance
of Equity documents were introduced into Ontario's Equity Court and practised
there until that court closed (1 881 ).' Upper Canada offcials had at their
disposal numerous regulations and guides for the practice and administration of
equity. The earliest publication of these regulations (1 837) described exactly
how Court of Chancery records were to be kept: