surrogate (surogat)

[See surrogate, v.] 1. In a general sense, a substitute; a person appointed or deputed to act for another, particularly the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge, most commonly of a bishop or his chancellor. A helper, or a surrogate , in government. Jer. Taylor , Works (ed. 1835), II. 163. The majority of their educated men [in Germany]... are disposed to view religion either with von Hartmann as a mere surrogate to morality, or with Wundt as an excrescence of the moral consciousne . New Princeton Rev., I. 148. 2. In the State of New York, a judge having jurisdiction over the probate of wills and the administration of estates. In England this probate jurisdiction was, from the first until a very recent date, a prerogative of the ecclesiastical courts, and in two of our states the probate courts retain the names of the officers who exercised this function in the place of the bishop: in Georgia the court is called the court of the "Ordinary," in New York the " Surro gate's" court. W. Wilson , State, § 958.