A Commissioner of Bankruptcy (England and Wales) was, from 1571 to 1883, an official appointed (initially by commission of the Lord Chancellor) to administer the estate of a bankrupt with full power to dispose of all his lands and tenements.

Administration was delegated to certain members of the Privy Council and the chief justices of King's Bench and Common Pleas.

Their Office of the Commissioners of Bankrupts was attached to the Court of Chancery.

People vesting all property in an official assignee could obtain protection from either courts.

From 1842 under the Bankruptcy Act 1842 persons not being a trader or being a trader and owing less than £300 could obtain the protection of the official assignee from this court in London or one of the district courts of bankruptcy.