Antiquities

OF THE

INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY.

CHAP. I.

IT has been before observed, that previous to, and immediately succeeding the Norman conquest, the knowledge of the laws of England, as well as the administration of them, were chiefly confined to ecclesiastical persons, the unsettled state of the kingdom obliging the nobility and gentry at those periods rather to addict themselves to the practice of arms than the attainment of literature; and in consequence it most probably happened, that the decision of controversies in civil cases was then so frequently by combat, and in criminal ones by fire and water ordeal.

On this account likewise we find, that most of the justices of the king's court, as well as those called itinerant, before the time of Henry III. were bishops, abbots, deans, canons in cathedral churches, archdeacons, &c.; and the chancellorship was exercised by clergymen even so late as the reign of Henry VII. But when by Magna Charta it was appointed that "Common pleas should not thenceforth follow the

court, but be held in some certain place," and that certain place was established in Westminster Hall, such establishment of this principal court of common law at that particular juncture, by affording a greater certainty as well to students as the peculiar ministers of each court where to exercise themselves, gave rise to the inns of court in its neighbourhood, collecting thereby the whole body of common lawyers, who would most likely then begin to fix and settle in certain places and stations most proper for their studies, conference, and practice.

And that this was the fact, and that these places were near the courts, we have the evidence of a precept of that age, which prohibited that the study of the law should be in any other places but at these inns of court. For there were before that time, it seems, some schools set up in the city for reading and teaching the laws; but the king (Henry III.) thought fit to have them restrained by proclamation, as appears by this record about the 28th of this reign:

Mandatum est maiori et vicecomit. London. &c. "Commandment is given to the mayor and sheriffs of London, that they cause proclamation to be made through the whole city, and firmly to forbid, that no one should set up schools in the said city, and teach the laws there for the time to come; and if any shall set up such schools there, they cause them to cease without delay. Witness the king at Basing, December 2'."

And that these studies might be there prosecuted 'Strype's Stowe.

the more regularly, Edward I. in the 20th of his reign, "did especially appoint John de Metingham (then lord chief justice of the court of common pleas), and the rest of his fellow-justices (of that court), that they, according to their discretions, should provide and ordain, from every county, certain attornies and lawyers of the best and most apt for their learning and skill, who might do service to his court and people; and that those so chosen only, and no other, should follow his court, and transact the affairs therein, the said king and his council then deeming the number of seven score to be sufficient for that employment; but it was left to the discretion of the said justices to add to that number, or diminish, as they should see fit."

We may thus conclude, though, the registers being lost, we have no memorial of the direct time, nor absolute certainty of the places, that the establishment of inns of court was soon after this time completely effected.

In the reign of Edward III. there is express mention of these legal seminaries (and it is the first which occurs) in a demise from the lady Clifford of the house near Fleet Street, called Clifford's Inn, ap

* In 1454 an act of parliament notices, "that there had used formerly six or eight attornies only, for Suffolk, Norfolk, and Norwich, together; that this number was now increased to more than eighty, most of whom being not of sufficient knowledge, came to fairs, &c. &c. inciting the people to suits for small trespasses, &c. &c.; wherefore there shall be hereafter but six for Suffolk, six for Norfolk, and two for the city of Norwich.”—Andrews's Chron. Hist. of Great Britain, book ii. p. 148.

apprenticiis de banco; by which is meant, to the lawyers belonging to the court of common pleas. In the same reign mention is again made of such inns or hostels in a quod ei deforciat to an exception taken. It was answered by sir Ric. de Willoughby (then a learned justice of the common pleas), and William Skipwith (afterwards also one of the justices of that court), "that the same was no exception in that court, although they had often heard the same for an exception, amongst the apprentices in hostells

or inns."

These inns, or hostels 3 as they were anciently called, were from their first institution divided into two sorts, denominated inns of court, and inns of chancery. The former were so named from the students in them being to serve the courts of judicature, or because these houses anciently received the sons of noblemen and the better sort of gentlemen, "who (says Fortescue) did there not only study the laws to serve the courts of justice and profit their country, but did further learn to dance, to sing, to play on instruments, on the ferial days, and to study divinity on the festival, using such exercises as they did who were brought up in the king's court:" so that these hostels being nurseries or seminaries of the court, taking their denomination of the end wherefore they were instituted, were called inns of court *.

• Inn, being the old English word for the house or residence of a nobleman, and of the same signification with the French hostel, or botel.

4 Dugdale. This seems a strained interpretation, Inns of court,