THE SERJEANTS AND SERJEANTS’ INNS
Like so much of the history of the Lawyers and their Inns, the origin of
the Serjeants and the steps by which they obtained a monopoly of
pleading are buried in obscurity. It is, at any rate, certain that the
Serjeants-at-Law, or _Servientes ad legem_, early acquired the exclusive
right of audience in the Court of Common Pleas, wherein were determined
all matters between subject and subject, where the King was not a party.
The Serjeants-at-Law had secured a monopoly of pleading; but, as
business increased in the Courts, they found themselves unable to deal
with it. In 1292, therefore, they were empowered, by an ordinance of
Edward I., to select from the students and apprentices of the Common Law
some of those best qualified to transact affairs in the King’s Courts
(_cf._ p. 6). It is not clear who these students and apprentices were,
but they were destined in the course of time to supersede the body of
Counsel whom they were called in to aid.
‘Apprentice’ is a term that smacks of the Guild, and though in the
fifteenth century it came to be applied to the Serjeants themselves, it
must originally have denoted the students who sat at the feet of some
recognized teacher of the Law. But, in truth, we have not enough
evidence to enable us to trace the developments of the relationship
between the Serjeants, the Students, and the Inns. The fact that the
Serjeants, or Doctors of Law, upon attaining that degree, entirely
severed their connection with their Inns, and that it was the Masters,
and not they, who formed the governing bodies of the Inns, may be
significant of some early difference or antagonism between the original
Serjeants-and Apprentices-at-Law.
The custom of tolling a newly-elected Serjeant out of Lincoln’s Inn by
ringing the chapel bell--‘a half-humorous, half-serious reminder that
hence-forward he was dead to the Society’--may be considered to support
this view.[79]
The obscurity of this question is enhanced, not only by the lack of
documentary evidence, but also by the fact that the technical terms of
the profession had no stationary significance. _Apprenticii ad legem_
was a fluid phrase; it came to be applied to the genuine junior
apprentices of the law in the Inns of Chancery, to the senior students
who instructed them, as well as to those who had completed the eight
years’ curriculum of the University, and, having passed their
examinations, were admitted to practise as advocates in Court, to the
very Serjeants and Judges themselves.
We have seen how the topography of the Inns of Court--and of London
itself--is bound up with the history of the Crusades and the Order of
Templars who sprang from them. It is supposed that the Order of
Serjeants, these Professors of the Common Law, who acquired the
exclusive privilege of practising in the Court of Common Pleas, imitated
the second degree of the Old Templars, and derived their name from the
‘free serving brethren’ of the Order of the Temple. The word Serjeant is
said to translate the Latin _Servientes_, and the King’s
Servants-at-Law, _Servientes domini Regis ad legem_, were, it is
suggested, the lineal descendants of the _fratres servientes_, the
servant brethren, of the Knights Templars. The peculiar dress of the
‘Order of the Coif’ is advanced as an argument in support of this
fascinating pedigree. The Serjeants-at-Law marked their rank, it is
suggested, by wearing red caps, under which, as in the East, a linen
cap, or coif, was worn. Did the Templars bring this habit from the East,
and were their first ‘servants’ Mohammedan prisoners? At any rate, the
coif proper was a kind of white hood made of lawn (later of silk), which
completely covered the head like a wig, and whilst the later black patch
represented the cornered cap worn over it, the true vestigial
representative of the coif is to be found in the white border of the
lawyer’s wig.[80] A connection may be traced between the white linen
thrown over the head of a Serjeant on his creation and the white mantle
in which the novice was clothed when, in the Chapel of St. Anne, he was
initiated into the Order of the Knights Templars, and declared a free,
equal, elected and admitted brother.
In this connection it is at least noteworthy that the Serjeants had a
cult for St. Thomas of Acre (Thomas à Becket), and that in the Chapel of
their patron Saint, adjoining the Old Hall of the Temple, they used to
pray before going to St. Paul’s to select their pillars. The Knights of
St. Thomas in Palestine were placed at Acre under the Templars in the
Holy Land, and a Chapel dedicated to St. Thomas of Acre was built for
them. Can it be that the Serjeants trace from the subservient Order of
the Knights of St. Thomas?
There is some trace of an ecclesiastical origin, not only in their
‘long, priest-like robes,’ which Fortescue describes, ‘with a cape,
furred with white lamb about their shoulders, and thereupon a hood with
two labels,’ but also in their performance of a rite, which none but
priests might offer, in a solemn ceremony that lasted down to the
Reformation. When feasts were held in the Temple Hall, the Serjeants, in
the middle of the feast, went to the Chapel of St. Thomas of Acre in
Cheapside, built by Thomas à Becket’s sister after his canonization, and
there offered; and then to St. Paul’s, where they offered at St.
Erkenwald’s shrine; then into the body of the Church. Here they were
appointed to their pillars by the Steward of the feast, to which they
then returned.
The theory has, indeed, been advanced that the coif was a device for
covering the tonsure of ecclesiastical pleaders after clerics had been
forbidden to practise in the secular Courts. But this explanation seems
too ingenious.
The ceremony of choosing a pillar at St. Paul’s, referred to above,
points to the ancient practice of the Lawyers taking each his station at
one of the pillars in the Cathedral, and there waiting for clients. ‘The
legal sage stood, it is said, with pen in hand, and dexterously noted
down the particulars of every man’s case on his knee.’[81]
It long remained the custom of the Law-Courts to adjourn at noon. Then
the Serjeants would repair to the ‘Parvis,’ or porch, of St. Paul’s to
meet their clients in consultation. And this practice is alluded to by
Chaucer:
‘A serjeant of the law ware and wise,
That often had y been at the “Parvise,”
There was also, full rich of excellence.
Discreet he was, and of great reverence;
He seemed such, his words were so wise.
Justice he was full often in assize,
By patent and by pleine commissioun.’
_‘Prologue,’ Canterbury Tales._
Whatever the exact history of their lineage, the trained lawyers who
were summoned to attend and advise the King in Council did, undoubtedly,
become a recognized Order, styled _Servientes Regis ad Legem_--King’s
Serjeants-at-Law. From their ranks the Judges were always supposed to be
chosen. The old formula at Westminster, when a new Serjeant approached
the Judges, was, ‘I think I see a brother.’ Down to the time of the
abolition of the Order, a lawyer, when nominated a Judge, first had to
get himself admitted a Serjeant, and to enter the Order of the Coif.
This was always an expensive step.
Fortescue enlarges upon the cost which attended the ceremonies, when one
of the persons ‘pitched upon by the Lord Chief Justice with the advice
and consent of all the Judges’ was summoned in virtue of the King’s Writ
to take upon him the state and degree of a Serjeant-at-Law.
His own bill for the gold rings he was obliged to present--_fidei
symbolo_--on such an occasion to the Princes, Dukes, Archbishops and
Judges who were present at the ‘sumptuous feast, like that at a
Coronation, lasting seven days, which the new-created Serjeants were
called upon to give,’ amounted to £50. There is record of a Serjeants’
Feast held in the Inner Temple, 1555, which cost over £660. These feasts
were held at first at Ely Place, Lambeth Palace, or St. John’s Priory at
Clerkenwell. Afterwards they took place in the Hall of the Inn of which
the new Serjeant had been a Student. The whole House contributed to the
expense of this degree. The elaborate ceremonies which attended the
creation of a new Serjeant-at-Law are given at length by Dugdale
(chapter xli. _et seq._). It would be out of place to recount them here.
It has been humorously, though not quite accurately, observed that the
Bar ‘went into mourning for Queen Anne, and has remained in mourning
ever since.’ The sombre robes now worn by the English Bar may well be
thought to symbolize the dignity of the law and the gravity of the
profession, as the ‘spotless ermine’ typifies the integrity and
independence of the Judges. But, as was the case with the hoods and
gowns of other degrees in other Universities, or the black _felze_ of a
gondola at Venice, brilliancy and splendour of colour was the original
note, and dulness was the result of restriction. The robes which the
Serjeants wore varied from time to time, and with different occasions.
In the seventeenth century Dugdale observes that their robes still in
some degree resembled ‘those of the Justices of either Bench, and were
of murrey, black furred with white, and scarlet. But the robe which they
usually wear at their Creation only is of murrey and mouse-colour,’ with
a suitable hood and the coif.
Arrangements were made about 1635 between the Judges and Serjeants, in
accordance with which gowns of black cloth were to be worn for
term-time; violet cloth for Court or holidays; scarlet in procession to
St. Paul’s, or when dining in state at the Guildhall or attending the
Sovereign’s presence at the House of Lords, and black silk for trials at
_Nisi Prius_. But the fashions and colours were always changing. The
violet gown, which superseded the mustard and murrey worn in Court
during term-time, gave occasion for Jekyll’s witty rhyme, when a dull
Serjeant was wearying the Court with a prosy argument:
‘The Serjeants are a grateful race;
Their dress and language show it;
Their purple robes from Tyre we trace;
Their arguments go to it.’
It was the militant Chief Justice Willes who, ten years after the ’45,
first endeavoured to secure the abolition of the exclusive right of the
Serjeants to practise in the Court of Common Pleas. But their hour had
not yet come. In 1834 a mandate was obtained from William IV. abolishing
the privilege of the Serjeants, but this was set aside by the Privy
Council as being defective in form. At length doom fell upon the old
Order of the Coif, in the shape of an Act of Parliament, 1846, which
threw open the Common Pleas to all counsel indiscriminately. The last
Queen’s Serjeants to be appointed were Serjeants Byles, Channel, Shee,
and Wrangham, in 1857. By the Judicature Act of 1873, which consolidated
the three Courts of Law at Westminster (_See_ Chapter I.) into the High
Court of Justice, the Judges were no longer required to receive the coif
on their nomination to the bench. The knell of the Serjeants’ doom had
now rung. Five years later their Inn in Chancery Lane and the
Brotherhood were dissolved.
When the mere pillars of St. Paul’s had ceased to be regarded as
satisfactory ‘chambers,’ the Serjeants, like the law-apprentices, took
possession of Inns for the purposes of practice and residence. These
Inns remained independent bodies, and never became, like the Inns of
Chancery, subject to the Inns of Court.
Scrope’s Inn, adjoining the Palace of the Bishops of Ely, and opposite
the Church of St. Andrew in Holborn, was the first abode of the
Serjeants. Its site was long marked by Scrope’s Court in Holborn. It
took its name from the Le Scropes, who rose to eminence under Edward I.
Two brothers, Sir Henry and Sir Geoffrey, both became Chief Justice of
King’s Bench, in 1317 and 1324 respectively. Richard Le Scrope, son of
the former, was created Baron Scrope of Bolton, and was twice Chancellor
of England. He died in 1403, whilst in residence at his Inn. Scrope’s
Inn would thus naturally be a centre round which the trained professors
of the law would congregate, as round Lincoln’s Inn and Grey’s Inn, to
help in the transaction of the business of the Justice of King’s Bench.
It then became an Inn for Judges and Serjeants-at-Law, and so continued
until, in 1498, it was abandoned. For the lawyers were concentrating
upon the southern end of Chancellor’s Lane and Fleet Street. The
Serjeants took up their residence in Serjeants’ Inn (Fleet Street) at
least as early as the reign of Henry VI., and probably much earlier
(Dugdale). This Inn is connected with the Inner Temple by a passage past
the little garden once in the possession of Sir Edward Coke, and
afterwards known as the ‘Benchers’ Garden.’ But the principal entrance
is from Fleet Street, through a pair of handsome iron gates, in which
are wrought the arms of the Inn, a dove and a serpent.
The Gate House forms the offices of the Norwich Union Fire and Life
Assurance Society. The whole Inn was burnt down in the Great Fire, and
was afterwards rebuilt (1670) by means of voluntary subscriptions on
the part of the Serjeants. But upon the expiration of the lease then
granted to them, the Serjeants abandoned their Inn, with its fine
chapel, hall, and houses that surrounded the Court, and united with
their brethren in Chancery Lane. The Inn was afterwards pulled down and
rebuilt from the designs of Adam, the architect of the Adelphi, for
private houses and Assurance offices. The ‘elegant building,’ as Herbert
calls it, in the classical style, which was erected on the site of the
old Hall, formed at first the offices of the Amicable Assurance Company,
and is now occupied by the Church of England Sunday School Institute.
The quiet quadrangle is surrounded by pleasing eighteenth-century
houses, with decorated porches and fine iron-work. Some of them have
extinguishers for the links in front of their porches. Loftie noted the
initials “S. I.” and the date 1669 upon one survivor of the Serjeants’
rebuilding.
The Inn, which the Serjeants joined when they left Fleet Street, had
been occupied by their brethren since the end of the fourteenth century.
But, though leased to their representatives by the Bishops of Ely, who
held the freehold, or their lessees, it was not called Serjeants’ Inn
until 1484. Prior to that date it was known as Faryngdon’s Inn in
Chancellor’s Lane. Here all the Judges, as having been Serjeants-at-Law
before their elevation to the Bench, had chambers assigned to them.
A plain, unpleasing, stuccoed, Early Victorian building now faces
Chancery Lane, and drops as a screen of ugliness across the old brick
buildings within. This we owe to Sir Robert Smirke, who rebuilt the Inn
(1837-1838), with the exception of the old Hall, which was ‘approached
by a handsome flight of stone steps and balustrade.’ So Herbert, who
says that in his day (1804) all the buildings were modern. He describes
the Inn as then consisting of two small Courts, the principal entrance
from Chancery Lane fronting the Hall, and the second Court communicating
with Clifford’s Inn by a small passage. As there is an exit from
Clifford’s Inn to Fetter Lane, it is thus possible to pass from Chancery
Lane to Fetter[82] Lane without going into Fleet Street. When, in 1877,
the Brotherhood of Serjeants dissolved, they sold the Inn for some
£60,000 to Serjeant Cox, and divided the proceeds, but gave the
twenty-six valuable portraits of their predecessors, that had adorned
the walls of the Hall, to the National Portrait Gallery. The tiny Hall,
the single, narrow Court of plain stuccoed houses, and some trees and
turf behind some railings, remain to remind us of the Serjeants’ Inn and
the Serjeants’ Garden, where Lord Keeper Guildford would take his ease,
and where the great roll of English Judges have had chambers. But the
beautiful old stained glass windows of the Hall and Chapel, which bore
the arms of the various members, together with the heraldic device of
the Order--an ibis _proper_ on a shield _or_--were removed by the
purchaser to his residence of Millhill, where he built a chamber, the
facsimile of the Hall, for their reception.
Such is the story of the Inns of Court, which have gone on from strength
to strength, and of the Inns of Chancery and the Serjeants’ Inns, which
have almost vanished, together with the Societies which made them
famous, from off the changing face of London. It is a story which,
though briefly told, and told by a layman who makes no claim to
originality of material, can hardly fail to be of interest to those who
are alive to the charm of the old things of the Capital.
It brings before us, not only the vision of the great Justiciars who
transacted the business of the King’s Courts, of the great Lawyers who
built up the mighty fabric of English Law, and the great Judges who
defended the rights and liberties and progress of the people, but also
many of the greatest names in literature and architecture. The precincts
of the Temple remind us of the Order of the Red-Cross Knights, and near
at hand are the vacated Inns of that other Order which has been likewise
dissolved. For we see no more, save in the light of imagination, either
the mail-clad figures of the Templars in their white cloaks stamped with
the red cross, or the Serjeants in their white lawn coifs and
parti-coloured gowns, wending their way from the Temple Hall to the
shrine of St. Thomas.
The silver tongue of Harcourt is mute as the impassioned eloquence of
Burke and Sheridan, yet these buildings seem to echo with their voices,
with the sonorous declamation of Dr. Johnson, or the witty stammer of
Charles Lamb. There, in Gray’s Inn, we still seem to see the figure of
Francis Bacon, pacing the walks with Raleigh, talking of trees and
politics and high adventure; from the Gateway of Lincoln’s Inn, and past
the red bricks laid by Ben Jonson, when Wolsey was Cardinal, the form
of Sir Thomas More emerges; and across the way the thin, alert figure of
Sir Edward Coke steps briskly from his tiny garden into Old Serjeants’
Inn.
Here Dickens talks with Thackeray, and Blackstone scowls at Goldsmith;
there, in the Middle Temple Hall, Queen Elizabeth leads the dance with
Sir Christopher Hatton, and the rafters ring with the music of
Shakespeare’s voice and Shakespeare’s poetry. And the buildings
themselves are the works of a noble army of English Architects,
admirable creations and memorials of the genius of Sir Christopher Wren,
Inigo Jones, Adam, Hardwick, Street, and of the unknown builders of
Norman, Gothic, and Elizabethan things. These facts once known, not all
the dirt and fog of London air, not all the noise and distraction of
City business and legal affairs, can ever again wholly obscure the
charm, the romance, the historical and literary associations, which
haunt these homes of so many great English Lawyers, Writers, and
Administrators.
APPENDIX
The following is a list of the chief authorities referred to in the
foregoing pages:
ADDISON, C. G.: The Knights Templars.
BAYLISS, T.: The Temple Church.
BEDWELL, C. E. A.: Quarterly Review, 1908.
BELLOT, H.: The Inner and Middle Temple.
DOUTHWAITE: Gray’s Inn, 1886.
DUGDALE, WILLIAM: Origines Juridicales, 1671.
FLETCHER, J.: The Pension Book of Gray’s Inn, 1901.
FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN: De Laudibus Legum.
GOUGH: Sepulchral Monuments.
HERBERT, WILLIAM: Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery, 1804.
INDERWICK, F. C., K.C.: Calendar of the Inner Temple Records.
KELLY, J.: Short History of the English Bar.
LEIGH, GERARD: Accedence of Armorie, 1653.
Lincoln’s Inn, The Black Books of, 1897.
LOFTIE, W. J.: Inns of Court and Chancery, 1895.
MANNINGHAM, JOHN, Diary of, 1868.
Minutes of Parliament of the Middle Temple.
PITT-LEWIS, G.: History of the Temple, 1898.
POLLOCK and MAITLAND: History of English Law.
PULLING, ALEXANDER: The Order of the Coif, 1884.
SPEDDING, JAMES: Life and Letters of Francis Bacon.
SPILSBURY, W. H.: Lincoln’s Inn, 1850.
STOW, JOHN: Survey of London, Ed. Kingsford, 1908.
WHEATLEY, H. B.: Literary Landmarks of London.
WILLIAMS, E.: Staple Inn.
INDEX
Abinger, Lord, 103
Abram, Messrs., shop, 67
Adam, architect, 197, 201
Addison, Joseph, 62, 66
Ainger, Canon, 59
Albert, Prince, 120
Alderson, Edward Hall, 94
Allington, Sir Richard, 183
Ancients. See Benchers
Anson, Sir William, 72
Apprentices at the Law, 5, 6, 9, 12, 17 _ff._, 36, 38, 39, 166, 186-188
Ashburton, Lord, 81
Ashmole, Elias, 81
Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., 93
Atterbury, Bishop, 183
Bacon, 136
Sir Francis, 89, 144-146, 148-152, 155-162
Sir Nicholas, 146, 153, 156
Barebone, Dr., 143
Barnard’s Inn, 102, 173-175
Barristers, Inner, 11 _ff._
Outer, or Utter, 11 _ff._
Roll, 80
Bathurst, Lord, 121
Beaumont, Francis, 89, 152
Benchers, 11 _ff._, 61, 95, 100, 153
Bernasconi, 117
Bettenham, Jeremy, 161
Blackfriars, 108, 109
Blackstone, Sir W., 70, 165
Boswell, James, 87-89
Bolting, 59
Bowen, Lord, 72
Brewer, Dr., 184
Brougham, Lord, 117, 121
Burghley, Lord, 142
Burke, Edmund, 45, 69
Burleigh, Lord, 149
Burnet, Bishop, 183, 184
Butler, Bishop, 183
Butler, Samuel, 57, 163
Byllyng, Sir W., 139
Camden, William, 163
Campbell, Lord, 81, 93, 121
Thomas, 126
Canning, George, 93, 121
Carew, Sir Randolph, 98
Carey Street, 177, 178
Chancery Lane (= Chancellor’s Lane = New Street), 1, 8, 106,
107, 122, 128, 196-199
Old Temple in, 29
Chapman, George, 163
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 37, 64, 104, 105, 191
Chelmsford, Lord, 103
Cheshire Cheese, the, 69
Chester Inn, 180
Chichester, Bishop of, 106, 107
Child’s Bank, 66
Churches, Round, 28, 29, 47
Cibber, Colley, 103
City, the, boundaries of, 6, 7
Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, 80
Clement’s Inn, 95, 177
Clergy excluded from the Courts, 4, 8
Cleveland, John, 163
Clifford’s Inn, 5, 167, 176, 178-180, 198
Kentish Mess, 180
Cobbett, William, 163
Cockburn, Sir Alexander, 81
Coif, the, 192, 195
Order of the, 188, 189
Coke, Sir Edward, 87, 92, 98, 179, 196, 201
Lord, 146
Coleridge, Lord, 72
Colman, George, 121
Colonies, the, and the Inns of Court, 78-80
‘Comedy of Errors,’ the, 150
Coney Garth, 107, 111
Congreve, William, 80
Connaught, H.R.H. the Duke of, 163
Converts, House of the, 181 _ff._
Courts, the Civil, 3, 4
Coverley, Sir Roger de, 162
Cowper, Lord Chancellor, 81
William, 73, 104
Cox, Serjeant, 199
Cromwell, Oliver, 113, 114, 130
Thomas, 163
Crusades, 188
influence of, 2
Cursitor Street, 156
Davey, Lord, 121
Day, Thomas, 60
Denys, Hugh, 140
Despencer, Hugh le, 36
Devereux Court, 35, 82
Devil Tavern, the, 66
Devil’s Own, the, 129 _ff._
Dickens, Charles, 126-128, 169-171, 176
quoted, 46, 82, 83
Disraeli, Benjamin, 121
Donne, Dr., 114 _ff._
Drake, Sir Francis, 78
Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 81, 131, 134
Ellenborough, Lord, 93, 94, 134
Ellesmere, Earl of, 129
Ely, Bishops of, 197
Ely Place, 171
Embankment, the, 67, 74, 94
Erskine, Lord, 121, 133
Essex House, 35
Water Gate, 84
Inn, 35
Street, 29, 35
Evelyn, John, 81
Eyre, Sir James, 146
Faryngdon’s Inn, 198
Feasts and Bevels. See Inns of Court
Fetter Lane, 178, 198
Fielding, Henry, 62, 73
Finch, Sir Heneage, 99, 100
Fire of London, the, 45, 47, 57, 74, 96, 103, 179
of 1678, 59, 73, 81, 96
Fitchett’s Field, 30
Fitzgerald, Edward, quoted, 96
Percy, 176
Fleet Street, 1, 2, 5, 9, 29-31, 44, 65, 102, 178, 196
No. 16, 45
No. 17, 45
Ford, John, 80
Fresco by Watts, 120
Furnival’s Inn, 122, 175, 176
Gainsborough, 113
Gardiner, Bishop, 146
Gascoigne, George, 163
Sir William, 163
Gauden, Dr. John, 58
Gibbons, Grinling, 102
Gifford, Robert, M.R., 81
Gladstone, W. E., 121
Goldsmith, Oliver, 62, 65, 69-72, 104, 163
Goldsmith’s grave, 71
Goldsmith, Sir Francis, 185
‘_Gorboduc_,’ 99
Gordon Riots, 131, 132
Grant, Sir William, 133
Gray, Earl de, 108
Gray’s Inn, 6, 70, 87, 89, 108, 135 _ff._, 195
Ancients of, 153
and Barnard’s Inn, 173-175
and Francis Bacon, 148 _ff._
and Queen Elizabeth, 146-152
and Shakespeare, 148, 150
and Staple Inn, 172
arms of, 160
buildings of, 142 _ff._
Chapel, 144, 154, 155
Field Court, 159
Fields, 136
Fullwood’s Rents, 162
Gardens, 159 _ff._
Gateways, 143, 144
Hall, 144 _ff._
Lane, 136, 143
Library, 144, 145
masques and plays at, 148 _ff._
moots received at, 21
origin of, 137-142
pensions and pensioners of, 153
Raymond Buildings, 159
Road, 145, 158
rookery in, 161
South Square, 143 _ff._, 157, 159
Square, 143, 155, 156
surroundings of, 135, 136
Verulam Buildings, 158, 159
Walks, 162
Grenville, George, 93
Grey Friars, the, 137
Greys, the, of Wilton, 137 _ff._
Griffith, Henry, 147
Grimthorpe, Lord, 112, 118
Hale, Sir Matthew, 98, 118, 167, 179
Hallam, Henry, 80
Halls of the Inns, 11 _ff._
Hampden, John, 162
Harcourt, Sir Simon, 98
Hardwick, Philip, 118, 119, 128
Hatton, Sir C., 25
Havelock, Sir Henry, 81
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 135
Heath, C. J., 130
Heber, Bishop, 116
Herring, Archbishop, 116
Hogarth, William, 76, 104, 118, 126
Holborn, 8, 131, 135, 144, 195
Bars, 6, 7, 29, 31
Bridge, 108
Hooker, bust of, 55
Dr. John, 58
Hullock, Sir John, 146
Inner Temple. See Temple Lane, 87, 89, 92
Inns of Chancery, 9, 18
dissolution of, 167
monopolized by attorneys, 167
origin of, 165 _ff._
relation of Inns of Court to, 166-168.
See Barnard’s Inn, Clement’s Inn, Clifford’s Inn, Furnival’s Inn,
Lyon’s Inn, New Inn, Staple Inn, Strand Inn, Thavie’s Inn
Inns of Court, 61-64, 75, 106, 142
and the Colonies, 79, 80
a University of Law, 8-11, 16
an aristocratic University, 16, 17
buildings of, 73
degrees, discipline, and customs of, 11-26
Feastings, Revels, and Post-Revels, 13, 22-26, 77, 98, 117, 192, 193
Guilds of Study, 9, 10, 17
Halls, 23-26
homes of literature, 19 _ff._
Irish Law-students at the Inns of Court, 20
masques and plays performed at, 24-26, 65, 77, 89, 148 _ff._, 192
origin of, 2 _ff._
Parliaments of, 153, 154
position of, 163, 164
relation of, to Inns of Chancery, 165-168
Volunteers, 129 _ff._
Ireton, Commissary, 130
Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor, 55, 80, 101
Jessel, Sir George, 185
Jews, House of the Converted, 181 _ff._
Johnson, Dr., 62, 65-67, 69, 87-89, 173
Jones, Inigo, 45, 114, 115, 122, 127, 175
Lieutenant-General, 130
Sir William, 60
Jonson, Ben, 66, 112, 113, 142
Kenealy, Dr., 163
Kentish Mess (Clifford’s Inn), 180
King Charles I., 25, 76, 99, 129, 130, 146, 152
Charles II., 127, 141, 146
Edward I., 33
Ordinance of, 4, 186
Edward II., 34-36
Edward VII., 85
George II., 98
George III., 133
Henry II., 30
Henry III., 33, 181
Ordinance of, 8
Henry VII., 111
Henry VIII., 112
James I., 40, 89, 100, 136
patent of, 41
James II., 146
John, 33
William III., 98
King’s Bench Walk, 94
Kingsley, Charles, 121
Kinlosse, Lord, 183
Knights Hospitallers (Order of St. John), 34-36, 39, 40, 47, 58, 98
Knights Templars. See Templars, Knights
Lamb, Charles, 29, 59, 65, 82, 87, 89-95, 159
Lambeth Palace, 112
Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, 35, 39, 40, 110
Law Courts, the, 1, 3, 8, 30, 118, 177, 178
Leicester, Earl of, 91
Leigh, Gerard, 99
Lincoln, Earl of, 107 _ff._
Lincoln’s Inn, 6, 20, 29, 107 _ff._, 167
Buildings, 111 _ff._
Chapel, 113-117
Chaplain of, 114-116
custom at, 187
Fields, 122-128, 131
No. 13 (Soane Museum), 124-126
fresco, by Watts, 120, 121
Gateway, 111-113, 130
Library, 113, 118
New Hall, 118-122
Square, 122
Old Buildings, 113
Hall, 117, 118
origin of, 107-111
Revels at, 117
Stone Buildings, 118, 128, 129
Linge, Bernard van, 116
Lockwood, Sir Frank, 94, 121
London County Council, 45, 67
London, growth of, 1, 136
Louvres, 23, 24, 76, 117
Lovell, Sir Thomas, 111, 112
Lushington, Stephen, 94
Lyon’s Inn, 176
Lyte, Sir Henry Maxwell, 183
Lyttleton, Edward, Lord, 92, 130
Sir Thomas, 92, 98
Macaulay, Lord, 157
Mackworth, Dr. John, 173
Macnaghten, Lord, 121
Mandeville, Geoffrey, effigy of, 54
Manningham, John, diary of, 77
Mansfield, Lord, C.J., 81, 103, 121, 131
Masque of Flowers, the, 152
Masques and Plays, 24-26, 65, 89, 148 _ff._
Matthews, Sir Philip, 141
Maule, Sir John, 93
Mercers’ Company, the, 175
Micklethwaite, Dr., 58
Middle Temple. See Temple, Middle
Lane, 67, 74
Midsummer Night’s Dream, 148
Milford Lane, 84
Molyneux Globes, 79
Moots, 11 _ff._
More, Sir Thomas, 122, 175, 181
Museum, Sir John Soane, 124-126
Record Office, 183, 184
Nethersale, John, 118
Neville, Sir Thomas, 142
New Inn, 40, 181
Norths, the, 81
Norton, Thomas, 65, 99
O’Connell, Daniel, 20, 121
‘Old Curiosity Shop,’ the, 126-128
Ossulston, Manor of, 137
Overbury, Sir Thomas, 80
Parvis, the, of St. Paul’s, 191
Paston Letters, the, 139
Paulet, Sir Amias, 66
Pembroke, Earl of, 35, 36
Earls of, effigies of, 53
Penn, William, 121
Perceval, 121
Petyt, Sylvester, 102
William, 102
Pitt, William, 113, 121
Plays. See Inns of Court, Masques
Plowden, Edmund, 80
Monument, 56
Poland, Sir Harry, 101
Pollocks, the, 81, 100
Portpool, Manor of, 137, 140, 141
Market, 171
Portsmouth, Duchess of, 127
Street, 127
Post-Revels. See Inns of Court, Feasts, etc.
Praed, W. M., 69
Prudential Assurance Company, 169, 170, 172, 175, 176
Prynne, John, 25
William, 117, 121
Pym, John, 77, 163
Queen Anne, 98
Caroline, 98
Elizabeth, 25, 78, 146-152
Mary, 98
Victoria, 6, 119, 184
Quincey, Thomas de, 80
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 78, 160
Raymond, Lord, 146
Rayner, C. J., 121
Readers, 12 _ff._
Readerships, revived, 20
Readings, 11 _ff._
Record Office, the Public, 80, 179, 182-185
Museum of the, 183, 184
Red Cross Knights. _See_ Templars Lion Fields, 143
Revels. See Inns of Court
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 69
Robes of the Bar, 193, 194
Rogers, Samuel, 93
Rolls Chapel, 182-185
Monuments, 183
Master of the, 182 _ff._
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 132, 136
Roo, John, 150
Rupert, Prince, 100
Russell, Lord, 72, 121
Sackville, Thomas, 65, 99
Savoy, the, 36
Scott, Sir G., 118
Scrope’s Inn, 108, 195
Scropes, Le, the, 108, 195, 196
Selden, John, 87, 93, 167, 179
grave of, 55
Serjeants, the, 12, 13, 186 _ff._
Abolition of the Order of, 194, 195
the, at St. Paul’s, 190, 191
Feasts, 192, 193
Inn (Chancery Lane), 178, 179, 197-199
Inn (Fleet Street), 92, 196, 197
Inns, 12, 195 _ff._
Robes of the, 193, 194
Shadwell, William, 80
Shakespeare, William, 42, 43, 75, 148, 150
at the Temple, 24
‘Twelfth Night,’ 77, 78
Shene, Convent of, 141
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 20
Shirley, James, 153
Shoe Lane, 108
Sidney, Sir Philip, 162
Skipworth, W., 139
Smirke, Sir Robert, 198
Sydney, 96
Soane, Sir John, Museum, 124-126
Solicitors excluded from the Inns of Court, 166
Somers, Lord Chancellor, 81
Somerset, Earl of, 152
House, 181
Southey, Robert, 163
Spedding, James, 96, 149, 151, 160
Spenser, Edmund, 68, 69
St. Anne, Chapel of. See Temple
St. Dunstan’s Church, 178
St. George’s Inn. See New Inn
St. James’s Palace, 112
St. John, Oliver, 130
Order of. See Knights Hospitallers
St. Paul’s Cathedral, 56, 67, 137
the Serjeants and, 189-191, 195
St. Thomas, Chapel of. See Temple
Knights of, 190
Staple Inn, 87, 137, 169-173
Stapleton Inn, 35
Steele, Richard, 66
Stowell, Lord, 81
Strand Inn, 180
the, 35, 177
Strange, Sir John, 183
Street, 30, 178
Architect, 1
Sundials (Temple), 72, 73, 81 _n._, 95, 96
Swift, Dean, 66
Taylor, Sir Robert, 128
Tom, 90, 91
Templars, the Knights, 1, 2, 27 _ff._, 48, 98, 106, 171
and the Serjeants, 188, 189
badge of the, 31, 32
customs of, 97
decadence and dissolution of the Order of the, 33 _ff._
effigies of, 46, 51-55
origin of the Order, 27, 28
settlement in England, 28 _ff._
Temple, the, 29, 110
a place of sanctuary, 60, 61
attacked by Wat Tyler’s men, 36
Temple Bar, 6-8
Chapel of St. Thomas, 59, 189, 200
Church, the, 44-59, 71, 74, 97
Chapel of St. Anne, 48, 189
dedication of the, 30, 31
description of, 46-56
Master of the, 57-59
Master’s House, 47, 57, 58
Cloisters, 59, 60
Flower Show, 94
Gardens, 6, 42, 43
buildings, 74
Temple, Inner, 6, 37, 86 _ff._ See Clifford’s Inn and Temple, Templars
Benchers’ Garden, 196
characteristics of the, 86, 87
charter of the, 40, 41
Clock Tower, 97
Cloister Court, 60
crest of the, 31, 32
Crown Office Row, 89-91
Farrar’s Buildings, 89
Feasts, 192
Fig-tree Court, 73, 93, 94
Garden, 94, 95
gateway, 1, 44, 45
Gordon Rioters at, 132
Hall, 38, 59, 65, 76, 96-99, 101
Harcourt Buildings, 74
Hare Court, 68, 89, 92, 93, 101
Johnson’s Buildings, 44, 87
King’s Bench Walk, 87, 91, 102-104
Library, 96, 101, 102
Mitre Court, 89, 92
Buildings, 91, 92
Paper Buildings, 89 _ff._, 93, 102
Parliament, 18
rebuilding of, 96
Revels at, 98 _ff._
solicitors excluded from, 166
sundial, Temple Gardens, 95
Tanfield Court, 97
Treasurer’s House, 97
Irishmen at the, 20
Lane, 102
lawyers first mentioned in, 37, 38
Temple, Middle, 6, 37 _ff._, 45, 64 _ff._, 131. See Temple, Templars
Brick Court, 68 _ff._, 90
sundial in, 72
Charter of, 40, 41
crest of the, 31, 32
Elizabethan sailors, 78
Elm Court, 71
Buildings, 74
Essex Court, 81
sundial, 81 _n._
Fountain, 75, 82-84
(or Hall) Court, 76
Garden Court, 70, 84
Gardens, 84
gateways, 1, 65 _ff._, 74
Goldsmith Buildings, 44, 71, 89
Hall, 38, 68, 69, 74 _ff._
Lamb Building, 60
Library, 84, 85
Little Gateway, 82
New Court, 82
Parliaments of, 154
Plowden Buildings, 74, 84
Pump Court, 73, 74
sundial in, 73
Rookery, 71, 72
Vine Court, 74
Temple, New, site of the, 29-31
Outer, 35
Refectory of the Priests, 59
Stairs, 67
St. Dunstan, 66
the Old, 171
Treasure House, 33, 34
Temple, ‘Twelfth Night,’ 24
Temples (Round Churches of the Templars), 28, 29
Thackeray, W. M., quoted, 4, 60-63, 69, 71, 90, 176
Thames, Embankment, 67, 74, 94
River, 9, 29, 30, 67, 68, 74
Thavie’s Inn, 5, 39, 176
Theobald’s Road, 136, 159
Thomson, Archbishop, 116
Thurloe, --, 113
Thurlow, Edward, Lord Chancellor, 93, 94
Titus Gates, 7, 8
Torrigiano, 183
Turnstiles, the, 123
Turton, Sir John, 146
Tyler, Wat, Rebellion, 36
Valence, Aymer de, 35, 36
Virginia, 78
Walpole, Horace, 121
Warburton, Bishop, 116
Warren, Samuel, 104
Watts, G. F., fresco by, 120, 121
Wellesley, Lord, 117
Westbury, Lord Chancellor, 21
Whitefriars, 29
Whitelock, Bulstrode, 130
Willes, C.J., 131, 194
William IV., mandate of, 194
Wine Office Court, 69
Wither, George, 121
Wolsey, Cardinal, 112, 150
Wren, Sir Christopher, 2, 59, 65, 82, 87 _n._, 103
Temple Bar, 7
Wycherley, William, 80
Yelverton, Sir C., 139, 146
Young, Dr., 183
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
[Illustration: MAP ACCOMPANYING ‘INNS OF COURT.’ BY GORDON HOME AND
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] ‘Survey of London.’
[2] Dugdale, ‘Origines Juridiciales.’
[3] Fortescue, ‘De Laudibus Legum.’
[4] Bedwell, _Quarterly Review_, October, 1908.
[5] Strype.
[6] Pollock and Maitland, ‘History of English Law,’ vol. i., p. 102.
[7] See my ‘Story of Oxford,’ chap. iv.
[8] Kelly, ‘Short History of the English Bar.’
[9] ‘The Glory of Generosity,’ quoted by Herbert, ‘Aniquities of the
Inns of Court.’
[10] Kelly, p. 56.
[11] Kelly, p. 127.
[12] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple,’ p. 36.
[13] Dugdale.
[14] MS. cited by Addison, ‘Knights Templars,’ p. 348.
[15] ‘History of the Temple,’ pp. 64-67.
[16] See Hutchinson, ‘Minutes of Parliament of Middle Temple,’ vol.
i., p. 12.
[17] An excellent little brochure on No. 17, Fleet Street, is
published by the L.C.C., and obtainable in ‘Prince Henry’s Council
Chamber.’
[18] The site is marked by seven large stone slabs. Outside the north
door of the old Hall stood the Chapel of St. Thomas. It was connected
with the Cloisters, and thereby with the Chapel of St. Anne or with
the present main entrance of the Temple Church. Indications of the old
cloister are traceable in the present Buttery and the ancient chamber
beneath it. The walls of this chamber are of rubble and Kentish rag,
and the ceiling is supported by groined arches. Its floor is on the
same level as that of the ancient Church. There is an open fireplace
of later date. Mr. Inderwick takes this room to have been the old
“Refectory of the Priests.”
[19] ‘The Temple Church.’
[20] _Cf._ ‘The Inns of Court and Chancery’ (W. J. Loftie).
[21] ‘Origines Juridiciales.’
[22] ‘Sepulchral Monuments,’ vol. i., pp. 24, 50.
[23] Gough, ‘Sepulchral Monuments.’
[24] Raised 2 feet in 1908, but otherwise unaltered.
[25] Can only be visited by obtaining an order. It would be gracious
of the Benchers to relax this restriction.
[26] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple.’
[27] Thackeray, ‘Pendennis.’
[28] ‘Pendennis.’ Before migrating to No. 2, Brick Court, William
Makepeace Thackeray lived at 10, Crown Office Row, probably sharing
chambers, which have since disappeared, with Tom Taylor.
[29] ‘Middle Temple Records.’
[30] ‘Life of Wolsey.’
[31] Bellot, p. 269.
[32] ‘English Humourists.’
[33] See Irving, ‘Goldsmith.’
[34] Wheatley, ‘Literary Landmarks of London.’
[35] Vol. v., p. 231.
[36] Restored 1903.
[37] ‘Diary of John Manningham, of the Middle Temple.’
[38] _Quarterly Review_, October, 1908; _Green Bag_, April, 1908.
[39] Upon the seventeenth-century block, which it replaced, there used
to be a sundial, which has disappeared. Perhaps its motto, ‘Vestigia
nulla retrorsum,’ was deemed too generous a warning against entering
upon the perilous paths of litigation.
[40] Dickens, ‘Martin Chuzzlewit.’
[41] Those of Nos. 4 and 5 are attributed to Sir Christopher Wren.
[42] His portrait, by Van Somer, hangs in the Hall.
[43] Inderwick, ‘Inner Temple Records,’ vol. ii., p. lxii.
[44] Inderwick, ‘Inner Temple Records,’ vol. i., p. xxiv. _Cf._ p. 48,
_supra_.
[45] Bellot.
[46] The last occasion of a Revel taking place in the Halls of the
Inns of Court was upon the elevation of Mr. Talbot to the woolsack
(1734). Then, after dinner, the Benchers all assembled in the Great
Hall of the Inner Temple, and a large ring having been formed round
the fireplace, the Master of the Revels took the Lord Chancellor by
the hand, who with his left took Mr. Justice Page, and the other
serjeants and benchers being joined together, all danced about the
fireplace three times, while the ancient song, ‘Round about our Coal
Fire,’ accompanied by music, was sung by the Comedian, Tony Aston,
dressed as a barrister. This song of the House has unfortunately been
lost.
[47] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple,’ p. 49.
[48] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892.
[49] Duchy of Lancaster, Ancient Deeds, L, 137; Close Rolls, 14 Edward
I., M, 2d.
[50] Quoted by Stow.
[51] Loftie, p. 53.
[52] Dugdale.
[53] ‘Life of Dr. Donne,’ by Izaak Walton.
[54] ‘Black Book of Lincoln’s Inn.’
[55] _Ibid._
[56] Loftie.
[57] Cf. _Daily Telegraph_, January 4, 1909.
[58] Kelly, ‘Short History of the English Bar.’
[59] Stow, vol. i., p. 11; ed. Kingsford.
[60] Douthwaite, ‘Notes on Gray’s Inn,’ 1876.
[61] Luttrell’s ‘Diary,’ June 10, 1684, quoted by Douthwaite.
[62] Douthwaite, p. 175.
[63] Enumerated by Douthwaite, ‘Gray’s Inn,’ 1886, and, with plates,
by Dugdale.
[64] _Cf._ Professor A. V. Dicey, in the _Nineteenth Century_,
September, 1903.
[65] Spedding, ‘Life and Letters of Francis Bacon.’
[66] Halliwell-Phillipps, ‘Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,’ p.
104.
[67] _Op. cit._, vol. i., p. 342.
[68] ‘Master Worsley’s Book’--Observations on the Constitution, etc.,
of the Middle Temple. Written, 1733.
[69] To commemorate the centenary of this date a bronze statue of the
Philosopher is shortly to be placed in the centre of the grass plot in
South Square.
[70] W. J. Broderip, _Fraser’s Magazine_, 1857.
[71] _Cf._ _Edinburgh Review_, vol. cxxxiv., p. 488.
[72] ‘Calendar of Inner Temple Records,’ vol. i., p. xiii.
[73] Historical MSS. Commission, XII., part i., vol. i., p. 60.
[74] By a charter of Edward IV., 1463, the Staple of wools was set at
Leadenhall.
[75] _Cf._ ‘Staple Inn,’ by E. Williams, F.R.G.S., p. 100.
[76] Douthwaite, p. 257.
[77] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892.
[78] A full descriptive catalogue, drawn up by Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte,
is obtainable at the Public Record Office.
[79] ‘Black Books of Lincoln’s Inn,’ vol. i., p. xxxix.
[80] See Serjeant Pulling, ‘The Order of the Coif.’
[81] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892.
[82] Fetter Lane is said to be derived from ‘Fewters,’ as the abode of
vagrants, cheats, and fortune-tellers.