Temple, because the patent granted by him in 1608 relieved the two
societies from what had been a somewhat precarious tenure of their
property. As a mark of gratitude they spent L666 (about L3,500 at
present value) on a gold cup for the king, which was subsequently pawned
in Holland by Charles I. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 checked
for a time the prosperity of the Temple. For two years the buildings
were practically deserted, and readings and exercises ceased till the
Commonwealth was established. From 1651 to 1654 every barrister and
master of the bench before opening his lips in court had to take what
was called "the engagement"--"I do declare and promise that I will be
true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as it is now
established without a king or a house of lords." Soon after the
Restoration there came further troubles from plague and fire. Twelve
deaths from the plague are recorded in the Burial Register for 1665, and
the buildings were again for a time deserted. The great fire of 1666,
the flames of which, after destroying King's Bench Walk, licked the east
end of the Temple Church, was followed in 1678 by another fire which did
much damage to the buildings of the Middle Temple, burned down the old
cloisters (afterwards replaced by Wren's somewhat commonplace colonnade)
and threatened the south-west angle of the church. A bird's-eye view
made in 1671 and John Ogilby's plan of 1677 enable us to follow the
process of reconstruction after the great fire, and at the same time
call attention to the disfigurement of the church by the mean shops and
small houses which had been built against its walls and even over its
porch. It seems as if for a time all appreciation of the beauty of the
buildings was lost. The Round Church, not being used for Divine service,
became, like Paul's Walk, a rendezvous for business appointments, and
the font was often specified in legal documents as the place where
payment was to be made to complete some transaction. That is why the
lawyer consulted by Hudibras advises his client while getting up his
case to
"Walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts[74]
About the cross-legged Knights their hosts."
Still, in spite of its shortcomings, the seventeenth century has at
least one claim upon the gratitude of those who worship in the Temple
Church. The organ of Bernard Schmidt (Father Smith), purchased in 1686,
still survives as the foundation of the modern instrument. The story of
the Battle of the Organs has been often told. The masters of the bench
were anxious to secure by competition the best possible make, and rival
organs were set up in the church by Smith and Harris. The decision was
eventually left to Judge Jeffreys, not apparently on account of his
musical knowledge, but because he was Lord Chancellor at the time. The
beautiful music of the Temple Church is thus strangely linked with a
name not usually associated with sweetness or harmony.
A few only of the Temple buildings are named after eminent men, and the
choice of names has been to some extent capricious or accidental. Among
lawyers thus commemorated, no one will dispute the claims of Edmund
Plowden, already mentioned. Hare Court preserves the memory not of Sir
Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls in Mary's reign (died 1557), but of a
nephew of his, a comparatively unknown Nicholas Hare, who rebuilt the
chambers on the south side of the court. The present Harcourt Buildings
replace earlier chambers erected during the treasurership of Sir Simon
Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor (died 1727). The eponymus of
Tanfield Court was Sir Lawrence Tanfield, a well-known judge in his day,
who resided there. We cannot but regret that more of the greatest legal
names have not in this way been handed down as household words to
posterity. Two great literary names do thus survive, but in neither case
was the existing building the home of the man. Dr. Johnson's Buildings,
rebuilt in 1857, recall nothing but the site of the chambers in which
Johnson lived for a few years from 1760. Goldsmith Building, erected in
1861, stands in no relation to the poet save that it is near the stone
which serves to mark (not very exactly) his burial place. Pious
pilgrimages are still made yearly to that stone on November 10, the
anniversary of his birth. Goldsmith died in the Temple in 1774, and from
1765 onwards he occupied chambers which still exist at 2, Brick Court. A
commemorative tablet recently placed there raises the question whether
the rooms on the north or on the south side of the staircase are
properly described as "two pair right." Some years before Oliver
Goldsmith removed to Brick Court, the Temple was the residence of
another poet--William Cowper. His attempted suicide there in 1763 shows
how bad for his melancholy temperament was a solitary life in chambers.
Charles Lamb, on the other hand--as we see, for instance, from his essay
on the Old Benchers of the Inner Temple--delighted in the Temple and all
its ways. The sense of its charm may be said to have been born and bred
in him, for he was born and spent his childhood in Crown Office Row. In
later life, for seventeen years from 1800, he and his sister occupied
chambers now no longer in existence, first in Mitre Court Buildings,
and afterwards in Inner Temple Lane, from the back windows of which he
looked upon the trees and pump in Hare Court. Lamb Building, of course,
has nothing to do with Charles Lamb. It belongs to an earlier time, and
its name is derived from the Agnus of the Middle Temple over its
doorway. Within fifteen years of Lamb's departure from the Temple
Thackeray was settled for a short time in the chambers in Hare Court,
which were immortalised some twenty years later, in _Pendennis_. "Lamb
Court," in which he places the chambers of George Warrington and Arthur
Pendennis, is the result of a combination of Lamb Building and Hare
Court. Other reminiscences of his life at the Temple may be found by the
student of Thackeray in some of his other works. Dickens, though he
never lived at the Temple, also betrays the influence of its charm. No
one can walk through Fountain Court without thinking sometimes of Ruth
Pinch.
Of the great lawyers who have occupied chambers in the Temple nothing
can here be said. The settlement of the lawyers has now lasted for
nearly six hundred years--almost four times as long as the tenure of the
Knights Templars, and for the greater part of that time we find in every
generation legal names which still survive in history, and which have
been concerned with the making of history. The lists which have been
compiled of distinguished members of the Inner and the Middle Temple are
of great interest and importance. But even more important is the long,
continuous history of the two societies. It has preserved for us such
memorials of the Knights Templars as still survive. If the lawyers had
never settled in the Temple, the Temple Church would probably have met
with the fate which overtook the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great,
and all that could now be done would be to restore a ruin. There have
been times, no doubt, in its past history when the church has suffered
from neglect and ignorance, but on the whole the lawyers have shown a
large-minded appreciation of their responsibilities. The last
restoration of the building in 1841, in spite of one or two mistakes,
was wonderfully successful. It was one of the earliest and best examples
of the "Gothic revival" which was just beginning to set in over England.
We owe to it, among other things, two interesting works on the Knights
Templars and on the Temple Church by C. G. Addison (died 1866), who was
one of the first lawyers in modern times to study the history of the
Temple in connection with the original documents. During the last few
years a great advance has been made in this direction, mainly by the
labours of lawyers. _The Calendar of the Inner Temple Records_, with its
full and learned introductions by F. A. Inderwick, K.C., Master of the
Bench (died 1904), is never likely to be superseded; and the same may be
said of _The Middle Temple Records, with Index and Calendar_, edited by
C. Hopwood, K.C. (died 1904), Master of the Bench of that society. To
these must be added _A Catalogue of Notable Middle Templars_, by Mr.
John Hutchinson, and a privately printed list of _Masters of the Bench
of the Inner Temple_ from 1450 to 1883, with _Supplement_ to 1900. Judge
Baylis, K.C., Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple, has given much
valuable information in his well-known work on the Temple Church, which
has gone through several editions. More recently, Mr. H. Bellot, of the
Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, has aimed at recording the legal,
literary, and historic associations of the Inner and Middle Temple, and
in a Bibliography appended to his book gives some idea of the immense
mass of material which has accumulated round the history of the Temple.
May "the two Learned and Honourable Societies of this House"--as they
are designated in the Bidding Prayer used every Sunday in the Temple
Church--long continue to be the home, not merely of professional
learning, but of general culture.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] The Outer, or "outward," Temple passed into private ownership at an
early date.
[74] A Knight of the (whipping) Post was a cant name for a disreputable
person, who would be willing to give false evidence.
HOLBORN AND THE INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY
BY E. WILLIAMS
Just as Holland denotes the hollow land, so Holborn, or Holeburn,
implies the hollow bourne--the bourne or river in the hollow. This once
forcible little stream descended four hundred feet in a journey of six
miles, taking its rise in Ken Wood, the beautifully timbered estate of
the Earls of Mansfield at Highgate. After passing through several ponds,
skirting the existing Millfield Lane, it crossed the foot of West Hill
and continued its course through what is now known as the Brookfield
Stud Farm, till, somewhat to the north of Prince of Wales' Road at
Kentish Town, it encountered another stream of almost equal rapidity,
the birthplace of which was in the Happy Valley at Hampstead. The united
current then rolled on through Camden Town and St. Pancras towards
Battle Bridge at King's Cross, from whence it flowed through Packington
Street, under Rosebery Avenue, into Farringdon Street, creating steep
banks on its flanks, which still remain the measure and evidence of its
ancient energy; until, finally, it debouched into that tidal estuary
from the Thames mediaevally known as the Fleet. Holborn Viaduct, at a
much higher altitude, now spans the hollow where once stood Holeburn
Bridge, at the wharves on either side of which "boats with corn, wine,
firewood, and other necessaries" would unload. But in 1598 John Stow
knew of this burn only as Turnmill Brook. Now it no longer exists; the
damming of its waters for the erection of mills in the Middle Ages, and
its more recent absorption by the water companies, have led to its
complete disappearance.
The Manor of Holeburn, which was bounded on the east by the southern
part of the Farringdon Street portion of this stream, included both
sides of Shoe Lane; but how far west or north it originally extended is
not known. In the year 1300, Saffron Hill, Fetter (or Faytour) Lane, and
Fleet Street were all outside its bounds. Shoe Lane was known as Sho
Lane, at one end of which was a well, called Show Well, from which the
neighbourhood drew its water.[75]
It was here that the Dominicans, or Black Friars, made their first
settlement in 1222;[76] their monastery was in Shoe Lane, and in 1286,
when they moved to the eastern side of the Fleet, by Baynard's Castle,
Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who was lord of the manor and a
justiciar, bought their old houses and established the first Lincoln's
Inn.[77] Two other inns of that name, one next to Staple Inn and one in
Chancery Lane, came into existence later, as we shall see presently.
Here the earl died in 1311, and he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
By his will, proved in the Court of Hustings at the Guildhall, he
directed that the houses which he had acquired from the monks should be
sold;[78] but the inheritance of the manor of Holeburn descended to his
son-in-law, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the King's cousin and Steward of
the kingdom. Legal business was certainly transacted at his Inn. The
yearly accounts of the Earldom of Lancaster for that period show that at
his house in Shoe Lane, from Michaelmas, 1314, to Michaelmas, 1315, the
amount of L314 7s. 41/2d. was spent for 1,714 lbs. of wax, with vermilion
and turpentine to make red wax, and L4 8s. 31/4d. for one hundred and
twenty-nine dozen of parchment, with ink.[79] He was beheaded in 1322,
leaving no issue, and his widow, Alesia de Lacy, married secondly Ebulo
Lestrange,[80] in whose family the manor remained until 1480, when it
passed by marriage to the Stanleys, Earls of Derby.[81] In 1602 it was
sold by the widow of Ferdinando, fifth earl, to Lord Buckhurst,[82]
afterwards Earl of Dorset, under whose immediate successor it was broken
up for building purposes.
The street of Holborn was at first simply the King's Street; afterwards
it acquired the name of Holebourne-Bridge-strate. From Newgate to a
little way west of St. Sepulchre's Church the high-road was known as "la
Baillie"; from thence it bore the same name as the river, being carried
over the bridge on to the ridge along which the Romans had built their
military stone-way, known as Watling Street, out of which, in the year
1300, there turned two streets towards the south, namely, Scho Lane and
Faitur Lane, and two towards the north, one called "le Vrunelane,"[83]
afterwards Lyverounelane, then Lyver Lane, now Leather Lane, and the
other called Portpool Lane, now Gray's Inn Road.
The justiciars, clerks in Chancery, and serjeants had frequent cause to
protest against the manner in which the stream of Holeburn was being
defiled. In the Parliament of Barons held in 1307, the Earl of Lincoln,
whose Inn was in close proximity, complained that
"whereas formerly ten and twelve ships were wont to come to
Flete Bridge and some of them to Holeburn Bridge, now, by the
filth of the tanners and others, by the erection of wharfs,
especially by them of the New Temple for their mills without
Baynard's Castle, and by other impediments, the course was
decayed so that ships could not enter as they were wont."[84]
Later on, in 1371, a writ was issued by Edward III. to the mayor and
sheriffs to the effect that
"Upon the open information as well of our Justiciars and our
Clerks in Chancery and our other Officers, as of other
reputable men now living in Fletestrete, Holebourne and
Smythfeld, we have heard that certain butchers of the said
city, giving no heed to our Ordinance, have slain large beasts
within the said city and have thrown the blood and entrails
thereof in divers places near Holbournebrigge and elsewhere in
the suburb aforesaid, from which abominations and stenches, and
the air affected thereby, sicknesses and very many other
maladies have befallen our Officers aforesaid and other persons
there dwelling to the no small damage of the same our Officers
and others," etc.[85]
Political exigencies had led these justiciars, clerks in Chancery, and
"our other officers," to settle outside the city walls. London had been
a free city in Saxon times, and William the Conqueror had allowed its
privileges when, by issuing his famous charter, six inches by one of
parchment, he granted its burghers to be all "law-worthy."[86]
Successive monarchs had put their seal to further charters, renewing and
enlarging previous concessions, so that none of the King's men, whether
knight or clerk, might lodge within the city walls, nor might lodging be
taken by force, and all pleas of the Crown were to be determined
elsewhere. In 1191 the burghers obtained a "sworn Commune," after the
pattern of that of Rouen, and it became a boast that "come what may, the
Londoners shall have no King but their Mayor."[87]
Henry III., jealous of political control, constantly endeavoured, by
irritating Ordinances, to cripple the powers previously conferred. On
December 2nd, 1234, he issued a
"Mandate to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London that they cause
proclamation to be made through the whole city firmly
forbidding that any should set up schools in the said city for
teaching the laws there for the time to come; and that if any
shall there set up such schools they cause them to cease
without delay."
Whatever the reason of this mandate may have been, the result was that
the Inns of the apprentices-at-law became fixed in the suburb.
At that date, namely, 1234, the principal officer of the Crown was Ralph
Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, the King's Chancellor, who held land on
both sides of New Street, afterwards known as Chancery Lane, and who had
succeeded to the power and influence previously enjoyed by the
justiciar, Hubert de Burgh. This once powerful minister, who had been
Regent during Henry's minority, had himself held land in New Street. But
upon his disgrace and dismissal in 1232 he was deprived of it, and it
was granted
"to the House which the King has founded in the street called
Newstrate, between the Old Temple and the New Temple, for the
support of the brethren converted, and to be converted, from
Judaism to the Catholic faith, saving the garden which the King
has already granted to Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, his
Chancellor."[88]
This house became the Rolls Office, and in after times, when the Master
of the Rolls became head of the Chancery clerks, the street became known
as Chancery Lane.
The Old Temple was in Holborn, and the property extended from the
north-eastern corner of Chancery Lane to Staple Inn, and possibly
further. The Knights Templars sold it about the year 1160 to the
Bishopric of Lincoln. Their round chapel, of which the round of the
present Temple Church is a replica, still retained its chaplain in 1222,
and its ruins were still existing in Queen Elizabeth's reign, quite
close to Staple Inn. In 1547 the bishopric had to resign the property to
John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Great Chamberlain of England, afterwards
Earl of Northumberland,[89] who conveyed it in 1549 to the Chancellor,
Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. The eastern part of the
property was built upon in 1580 by William Roper, of Lincoln's Inn; and
in 1638 the then Earl received licence to demolish his house to make way
for eighty smaller houses and one tavern. The rotunda of the Birkbeck
Bank occupies the site of what was once Northumberland Court, and
Southampton Buildings now cover the grounds of Southampton House.
On the west side of Chancery Lane, or New Street, Ralph Nevill, the
Bishop of Chichester, possessed a house which became part of the third
and present Lincoln's Inn; but his garden was on the east side of
Chancery Lane, and was bounded on the north by a ditch, known in 1262 as
Chanceleresdich. This ditch separated his garden from certain property,
occupied one hundred years later by serjeants and apprentices of the
law, which may be conveniently designated the second Lincoln's Inn. It
was situated to the east of Staple Inn, where now is Furnival Street.
Dugdale describes Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, as a person well
affected to the study of the laws, who had gathered around him numbers
of students. This statement is probably correct, for in 1292, only six
years after the earl had bought the houses of the Black Friars, Edward
I. urges the same course upon his Chief Justice of Common Pleas. He
enjoins John Metyngham and his fellows, _et sociis suis_, to provide a
certain number of every county of the better and more legally and
liberally learned for the purpose of being trained to practise in the
Courts.[90] If the Earl of Lincoln had already brought students to
London, we may be fairly certain that many of them would have come from
his lands in Lincolnshire and North Wales. The second Lincoln's Inn
appears to have been much connected with the one, and Davy's Inn with
the other.
In the year 1252, Adam de Basing, then Mayor of London, held a block of
land, about 100 yards wide by 220 yards long, on the east side of Staple
Inn, part of which was leased to Roger the Smith, and part to Geoffrey
the Wheelwright. In 1269, Simon Faber, son and heir of Roger, granted a
portion of it, lying next to Staple Inn, to Simon the Marshall, "being
in breadth at the King's street on the north 12 ells of the iron ell of
King Henry," and 48 ells long, "for the yearly rent, to Thomas, son of
Adam de Basing, and his heirs, of 10s. sterling, and to Simon Faber and
his heirs one rose at the feast of the nativity of St. John
Baptist."[91] But Simon the Marshall accepted this grant only to make a
feoffment of the property at once to Gilbert de Lincoln, known also as
Gilbert de Haliwell and as Gilbert Proudphoet, a dealer in parchment,
_parmentarius_, who held it for thirty-three years; his wife, after his
death, holding it for another five. In 1307, William le Brewere and
William atte Gate, executors of Gilbert de Lincoln, sold the property,
with the buildings thereon, to John de Dodyngton, variously described as
parmentarius and skinner, _pelliparius_, for the sum of one hundred
shillings.[92] Within five years, in 1312, John de Dodyngton transferred
it to Robert le Hende de Worcester, also parmentarius and pelliparius,
who held it for twenty years; from whom it descended in the female line
to James Gylot, who in 1369 enfeoffed of it Roger de Podyngton, and Joan
his wife, "to hold to Roger and Joan, and the heirs and assigns of
Roger, of the chief lords of that fee by the accustomed services for
ever."[93] In the same year Roger and Joan "gave" it to Walter de
Barton, citizen and cordwainer of London, to hold under the same
conditions, in whose possession it remained for seventeen years, when he
granted a feoffment of it to Robert de Cherlton, Chief Justice of Common
Pleas, Richard the Mauncyple, John Sutton, John Aldurley, and John
Parkere,[94] who in the same year transferred it to the Abbot of
Malmesbury. By an Inquisition, _ad quod damnum_, held in May of that
year, for the purpose of determining whether the gift might be legally
made, it was stated that the property was held in burgage--_i.e._, town
tenure--of the King, and there are no means between the King and the
said Robert, etc.[95] The abbot allowed Walter de Barton and his
successors to remain in occupation, the monastery receiving the rents.
Though for thirty-three years it had been held by Gilbert de Lincoln,
this property did not form a part of what was called Lyncolnesynne. It
was partly a brewery and partly a hostel, and remained such until the
reign of Henry VIII.
The property east and south of this was, in the year 1262, held by
Geoffrey the Wheelwright. That part of it lying east had been leased
direct from Adam Basing; it extended from the King's Street to the "land
of the Conversi," and was 12 ells in width at the north, 10 ells in
width at the south, and 220 yards long. That part lying south had been
granted to Geoffrey by Simon Faber; it contained
"in length from the ditch called _Chaunceleresdich_ towards the
Church of the Conversi on the south as far as Simon's own
curtilage on the north 31 perches of the perch of Henry III.,
whereof each perch contains 161/2 feet,"
and in width 11 ells of the said King;
"to hold to Geoffrey, his heirs and assigns, of Adam Basing,
for 2s. 8d. rent paid in the name of Simon, his heirs and
assigns, and one rose at the nativity of S. John Baptist to
Simon and his heirs."[96]
Adam de Basing gave this property to his daughter, Avice, wife of
William de Hadestok, Alderman of Tower Ward.[97] They had a daughter,
Joan, who married Adam Bidic, the King's tailor and custodian of the
assize of cloth,[98] who in 1291 granted it to William le Brewere and
Alice his wife.[99] It was described as stretching from the King's
Street on the north to the tenement of the Bishop of Chichester on the
south;
"to hold to William and Alice, their heirs and assigns, for the
yearly rent of two marks and for suits of court and all other
services wont to be done by Geoffrey, _le Whelwriste_, in the
time of Adam Basing, formerly citizen of London."
The widow of William le Brewere, in 1315, granted the property to Robert
le Hende de Worcester, who already held the brewery on the west.[100] In
1334 the executors of Robert sold the property (exclusive of the
brewery) to Thomas de Lincoln of the Common Bench, the King's serjeant,
who is described as son of Thomas de Lincoln.[101] Three years before,
in 1331, Thomas de Lincoln had acquired from John de Totel de Lincoln
other property to the east of this, and in 1332 a garden also, to the
south-east, from Andrew Courtays, the Coupere. These three combined
properties formed the inn which came to be known as "Lyncolnesynne." On
the 11th January, 1348, Thomas Bedic, grandson of Adam de Bedic, granted
all his rights of lordship in this property to Thomas de Lincoln, who
thus became entire owner of it.
After holding it for thirty-two years, Thomas de Lincoln, on Sunday, 1st
December, 1364, granted it to John Claymond, Justice for County Lincoln,
Peter Turke, and Robert de Ditton, "to hold to them, their heirs and
assigns, of the chief lords of that fee by the accustomed
services."[102] These feoffees, two years afterwards, granted it to
William de Worston, Justice of County Wilts., Thomas Coubrigge, William
Camme, Vicar of Westport, Malmesbury, and Robert de Cherlton, Chief
Justice of Common Pleas; and they, two years later still, in 1369,
received letters patent of Edward III, granting them licence to assign
it to the Abbot and Convent of Malmesbury,
"to hold to the Abbot and Convent and their successors _of the
King, the chief lord of that fee, by the services belonging to
those houses for ever_."[103]