Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chancery n.

In phrases

in chancery (also into chancery) [‘the tenacity and absolute control with which the Court of Chancery holds anything, and the certainty of cost and loss to property “in chancery”’ OED]

in an awkward situation; thus chanceried adj.

[1800		Sporting Mag. Jan. XV 210/2: It must give great satisfaction to the country at large, to find that the business of the Court of Chancery is at length to be divided; and that the phrase, ‘as long as a Chancery suit,’ is likely to become obsolete].
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 18: And when GEORGY, one time, got the head of the Bear / Into Chancery [...] Getting the head under the arm, for the purpose of fibbing.
1820		Carlisle Patriot 9 Dec. 2: He touched Hudson’s other peper so severely that his nob was Chanceried for an instant.
1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Sept. 269/1: The chancery suit thus commenced, a suit of mourning was soon bestowed gratis on the Sawyer.
1828		N.-Y. Enquirer 15 Apr. 2/4: The Coalman got the Pink’s head into chancery and fibbed him to his heart’s content.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 19: One thing he knew, they had got him in chancery, and he wished himself well out of it.
1836		A. Thornton Don Juan in London II 221: The friends of the chanceried gentleman then cried ‘Enough’.
1845		Era (London) 26 Jan. 10/3: Tom [...] got his opponent’s nob in chancery, and rattled away like an undertaker.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 102: Chancery, head in, said in fighting, of him whose head is held fast under the arm of his antagonist, and gets punished with little chance of extricating himself, unless he floors his man.
1856		Abbeville Banner (SC) 19 June 1/5: Get his head in a chancery, and bleed him till he pleads.
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 252: Ten rounds inside the rope, was a trifle to one in your own back parlour, when your missus had got your knowledge box in chancery on the hob.
1870		Paisley Herald 14 May 3/5: [headline] A ‘War Hawk’s’ Head in ‘Chancery’.
1883		Daily News 9 Mar. 3, col. 7: Thinking the man was a burglar he rode up to assist, and saw the constable holding Burtenshaw, and striking him. The constable had the prisoner in chancery [F&H].
1889		Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA) 9 July 3/6: Prize Ring Slang [...] ‘chancery,’ to get and hold an opponent’s head under the arm.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 15 Nov. 6/2: So Tivoli, the charming Tivoli, is in Chancery [...] and the company is declared insolvent.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 16: Chancery, difficulty.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 5 Jan. 210: In three minutes you had his head in chancery, and he was roaring for mercy.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 135: He played the fiddle as if he had got in chancery, fibbing at it with a punishing right.