Page "Court of Chancery" Paragraph 41

The Chancery's jurisdiction over " lunatics " came from two sources: first, the King's prerogative to look after them, which was exercised regularly by the Lord Chancellor, and second, the Lands of Lunatics Act, which gave the King ( and therefore the Chancellor ) custodianship of lunatics and their land ; the Lord Chancellor exercised the first right directly and the second in his role as head of the Court of Chancery.

This jurisdiction applied to any " idiots " or " lunatics ", regardless of whether or not they were British, or whether their land was within England and Wales.

They were divided into two categories – idiots, " who have no glimmering of reason from their birth and are, therefore, by law, presumed never likely to attain any ", and lunatics, " who have had understanding but have lost the use of it ".

Lunatics and idiots were administered separately by the Lord Chancellor under his two prerogatives ; the appeal under the King's prerogative went directly to the King, and under the Lands of Lunatics Act to the House of Lords.