Orphan Chamber, noun phrase

Origin:
DutchShow more Translation of Dutch weeskamer, see Weeskamer.
historical, Law
A court which regulated the affairs of orphaned minors at the Cape from 1674 to 1834; Weeskamer.
Note:
Similar in function to the English Court of Chancery.
1801 F. Dundas in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1899) IV. 12Give notice thereof to the Secretary of the Orphan Chamber.
1806 Cape Town Gaz. & Afr. Advertiser July 19The members of the Orphan Chamber of this Colony, intend..to dispose of by Public Auction, the property of the Deceased Apothecary Leopold Mayer.
a1823 J. Ewart Jrnl (1970) 41The Weeskamer or Orphan Chamber, a court consisting of a president, vice and four members like our Court of Chancery, regulates the affairs of orphan children, and takes charge of property which may be disputable, in order to have justice done to the parties concerned.
a1878 J. Montgomery Reminisc. (1981) 126A few days after the death of either the father or mother of a family the property used to be sold by the so-called Orphan Chamber, and I have seen poor widows and orphans stripped of everything they possessed, and left to starve, under the pretence of securing the property for the children.
1887 S.W. Silver & Co.’s Handbk to S. Afr. 21Far more beneficent in its operation was the Orphan Chamber, instituted to look after the interests of orphan children.
1928 E.A. Walker Hist. of S. Afr. 45The Orphan Chamber,..two officials and two burghers under a president appointed by the Commander. No widow or widower might re-marry without satisfying this committee that the rights of their children had been safeguarded; the committee itself invested the orphans’ money and thus played a useful part as a loan bank.
1936 Cambridge Hist. of Brit. Empire VIII. 154An Orphan Chamber had been established as far back as 1674.
1969 D. Child Yesterday’s Children 25In 1674 a special Orphan Chamber was established at the Cape to safeguard the rights of children who had lost one or both parents.
1987 G. Viney Col. Houses 99The Orphan Chamber (the equivalent of today’s Masters Office) maintained that it (sc. the will) was irregular.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 73Maynier estranged him..by sending him a letter demanding that he produce two guarantors for a loan that Van Jaarsveld had requested from the Orphan Chamber.
A court which regulated the affairs of orphaned minors at the Cape from 1674 to 1834; Weeskamer.
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