tenement with buildings thereon, and a curtilage adjacent," belonging to
the Knights Templars, which was then held by Simon le Webbe de Purtepol,
Bailiff of the Commonalty of the Guild of Weavers. Upon his death it
came into the possession of John Wymondeswolde, chaplain and
pelliparius, who in 1328 granted it to Robert the Marshall, citizen and
goldsmith of London
"to hold to Robert, his heirs and assigns, of the chief lords
of that fee, namely, the Prior of the Hospital of S. John of
Jerusalem in England and the Brethren of the Hospital, by
reason of the annulling of the Order of the Knights of the
Temple, by the service of ten shillings yearly."[104]
This rent was reduced in 1336 to 6s. 8d., because the tenement was
ruinous, Robert the Marshall promising to rebuild it. Eventually, in the
year 1361, it came into the hands of Gaillard Pete, or Pecche, and
eighteen years afterwards he granted it to Robert de Cherlton, Chief
Justice of the Common Bench, John atte Mulle, chaplain, Thomas de
Worston, and William Camme, their heirs and assigns, "to hold of the
chief lord of that fee for the accustomed services."[105] They demised
it to the same Gaillard and Agnes his wife for their lives, with
remainder to Roger, son of Gaillard, for his life. And eight years
afterwards the Chief Justice and his fellow feoffees granted this
property also to the Abbot of Malmesbury.[106] In the Inquisition _ad
quod damnum_ already quoted, it is stated that "the messuage and garden
are held of the King by Gailard Pete," which seems to imply that the
Chief Justice and his fellows had been acting all along as trustees; and
it is also stated that
"they are worth yearly according to their true value 13s. 4d.
and not more because they are charged yearly to the Master of
the Church of the New Temple within the Bar of London in 6s.
8d. quit rent."
The Abbot of Malmesbury had now become possessed of three properties in
Holborn: the tenement of Walter Barton, next to Staple Inn, acquired in
1387; Lyncolnesynne, acquired in 1369; and the tenement of Gailard Pete,
acquired, like that of Walter Barton, in 1387. In the reign of Henry
VIII., at the dissolution of the monasteries, there was still at this
spot a chapel, a hall, a kitchen, and a "great garden," where the monks
had "liberty to walk" when they came to London; and the brewery also was
still in existence.[107]
In 1399 a rental of the property of the Convent of Malmesbury was drawn
up, in which the following items appear[108]:--
"De Firmario novi hospicii apud Londoniam vocati { VIII li.
{ pro missa
Lyncolnesynne ad iiii^{or} terminos solvendo per annum { Abbatis
De tenemento quondam Gaillardi Poet in Holbourne XX s
De tenemento quondam Walter Bartone Allutarii XIII s IIII d"
Written in a different hand, with different coloured ink, at the bottom
margin of the page, and certainly of a later date, the following remarks
have been added:--
"London Hospicium Armigeri jam magnum hospitium
quod est ruinosum reddit per annum XL s
Tenura Celda proxima annexa hospicio reddit per annum IX s
tenencium Secunda celda reddit per annum X s
infra silvam Tertia celda reddit per annum VIII s
magni hospicii Quarta celda que est ..."
[Here the page is cut away.]
The "Inn of the Esquire ... which is ruinous" of the marginal note is
obviously the same as the "Lyncolnesynne" of the original entry, with
the rent reduced from L8 to 40s. per annum. It is not possible to date
this note, but it was probably made in the fifteenth century. In 1422
the Society of Lincoln's Inn took what is believed to be their first
lease of the Bishop of Chichester property on the west side of Chancery
Lane; but the society existed before that date, as in the Corporation
letter books Thomas Broun is described as Maunciple of Lincoln's Inn,
under date of 1417. In 1466 the society was paying 9s. yearly to the
prior of St. Giles' Hospital for Lepers for another part of its
property; and no other rents, apparently, were being paid for any other
part on the west side of Chancery Lane. But in the _Black Books_ of that
Inn (vol. i., p. 8), under a date only sixteen years later than that of
their lease of the Bishop's Inn, the following entry occurs:--
"In the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul 16 Henry VI.
(1438) John Row delivered to John Fortescue and others in the
name of the Society to be paid to ... Halssewylle _for the farm
of Lyncollysyn_ in arrear for the 15th year (Henry VI.) in the
time of Bartholomew Bolney then Pensioner in full payment 40s.
out of money received by him."
The yearly rent for the farm of Lyncollysyn is the same, therefore, as
was paid for the ruinous "Hospicium Armigeri"; and in the fourteenth
century, as Foss has pointed out, the term "esquire" was often used as a
synonym for "serjeant." The _Black Books_ also show that in 1457 a
payment was made by the society to the gardener of Staple Inn, from
which Inn access could be easily obtained to the "great garden" in which
the "Hospicium Armigeri" was situated. It would seem not improbable,
therefore, that the second and third Lincoln's Inns may, in the year
1438, have been coexistent and under the same rule. But there is at
present no evidence that this same society was connected with the Inn
in Shoe Lane, which 130 years earlier had belonged to Henry de Lacy.
John Fortescue, who received the 40s. for payment to Halssewyll, became
serjeant in 1441 and Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1442. In 1465
he wrote his famous work, _De Laudibus Legum Angliae_, in which he says:
"The laws are taught in a certain place of public study nigh to
the King's Courts.... There are ten lesser houses or Inns (and
sometimes more) which are called houses of Chancery, and to
every one of them belongeth 100 students at least, who, as they
grow to ripeness, are admitted into the greater Inns, called
Inns of Court, of which there are four in number, and to the
least of which belongeth 200 students or more."
It is clear, then, that the difference between the Inns of Court and
Inns of Chancery was recognised in 1465, and it is also certain that one
of those four Inns of Court was that to which he himself had belonged,
namely, Lincoln's Inn. The others were undoubtedly Gray's Inn and the
Inner and Middle Temples. We have seen that in 1387 Lincoln's Inn in
Holborn was held directly of the King; we shall find that the other Inns
of Court came to be similarly held.
In the year 1294, Reginald de Grey, a member of one of the leading
administrative and legal families, was Justiciar of Chester. He received
in that year from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a feoffment of the
manor of Portpool, which they had received in mortmain from Richard de
Chyggewell, alderman and mercer of London. It is doubtful whether
Reginald de Grey lived here; it is more likely that he acquired the
property for the training of his clerks, having found himself under much
the same necessity as his contemporaries, Sir John de Metyngham and the
Earl of Lincoln. In 1296 he was in association with Prince Edward, as
one of the Regency, during the expedition of Edward I. to Flanders. In
1307 he died, when an inquisition was taken, at which the jurors
reported that Reginald le Grey was seized at Purtepol of a certain
messuage with gardens and one dove house worth 10s. a year, 30 acres of
arable land worth 20s. a year, price 8d. the acre, and a certain
windmill worth 20s. all held of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.[109]
In 1316 his successor, Sir John de Grey, created a rent-charge on the
property in favour of the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew, in
Smithfield, to provide a chaplain to perform daily service in the chapel
of the manor; and at an inquisition held in that year, at the Stone
Cross in the parish of the Blessed Mary at the Strand, to know whether
it would be to the King's damage if he granted the necessary permission,
the jurors reported that the property was
"holden of Robert de Chiggewelle by the service of rendering to
the same Robert one rose yearly, and the same Robert holds the
tenements, together with others, of the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul's, and the said Dean and Chapter hold the same of the king
in pure and perpetual alms."[110]
The grandson of Sir John de Grey, another Reginald, died in 1370, and
was succeeded by Henry de Grey, under whom the first feoffment-in-trust
of this property that we know of took place. For when he died in 1397 it
was found by inquisition that Henry, Lord Grey de Wilton, held no land
in Middlesex, because by deed he had enfeoffed Roger Harecourt, Justice
for Co. Derby; John de Broughton, Escheator for the counties of Bucks
and Beds; William Danbury; John Boner, rector of the Church of Shirland
(one of the manors of the De Greys), and others, of his manor of
Portpoole, called Gray's Inn.[111] This was probably in 1371. Similar
feoffments-in-trust were made by successive Lords de Grey until 1506,
when Edmund, Lord de Grey of Wilton, sold the manor to Hugh Denys,
verger of Windsor Castle, and others, the said Hugh's feoffees.[112]
Hugh Denys died in 1511, and by his will he desired that all such
persons as had been feoffed of his manor of "Greysynte" should be seized
of it to the use of his heirs, "until such time as the Prior and Convent
of the Charterhouse at Shene, in the county of Surrey, have obtained of
the king's grace sufficient licence for the amortisement" of the manor
to them.[113] And five years later the necessary authority was granted,
the manor being described as having escheated to the King, "by the death
of Robert de Chiggewell without an heir," to be held to the annual value
of L6 13s. 4d.
At the dissolution of the monasteries the Benchers of Gray's Inn had to
pay this amount to the Crown, instead of to the Charterhouse at Shene.
Charles II. sold the rent to Sir Philip Matthews, and in 1733 the
Benchers purchased it from parties deriving title from his
co-heirs.[114] The hall of Gray's Inn dates from 1560; the chapel is of
unknown, but of ancient date.
The New Temple was in occupation by the Knights Templars before 1186.
They were bankers for the King, who sometimes lodged there. Their chapel
was the muniment house of the rolls of chancery; there the treasure and
regalia were stored; and there Parliaments and Courts, both criminal and
civil, were held. Naturally, they needed their own _fratres servientes_,
who were provided with food "at the clerks' tables," and yearly robes at
Christmas "of the suit of the free servants of the house."[115]
The chief lord was the Earl of Lancaster. But when the Knighthood was
suppressed, in 1308, their clerks were pensioned, and Edward II. granted
the property to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, he receiving the
issues, but holding the manor of the lord, to whom, however, he made a
"quit claim" in October, 1314, the Pope having granted the possessions
of the Templars to the Knights of St. John. Upon the execution and
attainder of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1322, the King gave the
lordship to Hugh le Despencer, who also obtained from the Prior of St.
John's a feoffment of the houses and appurtenances,[116] and on the
attainder of Hugh le Despencer, in 1327, the lordship and also the ferm
came into the hands of Edward III., who put William de Langeford, clerk
of the Prior and "chief servitor of the King's religion," in charge as
"fermor" at L24 yearly. He repaired the old houses for the King's clerks
to occupy;[117] and for some years following litigants coming into
chancery would take their oaths in the Temple Church; though sometimes
at this period they would attend in the church of St. Andrew in Holborn,
Thomas de Cotyngham, one of the Chancery clerks, then being rector
there. It was William de Langeford who, in 1335, took a lease from the
mayor and commonalty of "a piece of land" without Newgate "for making a
hall and three fit chambers at his own expense, for the sessions of the
Justices appointed to deliver Newgate Gaol."[118] This early Sessions
House is described as being in the King's high street, on the way
towards Holebourne. It would have stood at the north-west corner of the
present Newgate Street.
The Temple contained an inner consecrated area, which was occupied by
the Knights, and some houses adjacent on the west owned by them, but not
improbably occupied by students of the law. It appears that when the
manor was handed over to the Knights of St. John the King retained part
of it, which, however, in 1338, he allowed them to purchase for L100,
and from that date we read no more of the chancery being held in the
Temple Church. In gratitude to William de Langeford, whose services had
secured to the Order the restitution of their property, the prior
granted him a lease of "all their messuages and places of the sometime
Temple lying from the lane called Chauncellereslane to the Templebarre
without the gates of the New Temple." This lease was dated June 11th,
1339,[119] and the lawyers have held the property ever since.
The consecrated and secular areas may, perhaps, be the origin of the
division of the property into two Inns of Court; for the lease of 1339
obviously refers only to what is now known as the Middle Temple.
There is a tradition that the students of the Inner Temple came from
Davy's Inn, which could hardly have existed at that time under that
name, but it may be noted that in the records of that Inn it is stated,
under date of 1525, that "Master Barnardston is pardoned the office of
Steward because he executed the office of Principal of Davy's Inn at the
instance of this Society,"[120] thus showing that this Inn of Court had
the right in that year of supplying one of its own members to that
office.
In 1521 the Prior of St. John's made complaint that the Society of the
Inner Temple was occupying his lands against his will; but at the
dissolution of the religious houses in 1541, the rentals became due to
the Crown; and James I., in his sixth year, granted the property to the
Benchers of the Middle and Inner Temples in perpetuity for a fixed
rental of L20,[121] their several moieties of which Charles II. allowed
them to purchase in 1673 and 1675 respectively.[122]
The "round" of the church was completed in 1185, the choir in 1240, and
the whole building was "restored" in 1842 at a cost of L70,000. The hall
of the Middle Temple was built in 1572, that of the Inner Temple in
1870.
The property on the west side of New Street, or Chancery Lane, had been
granted to, or acquired by, the Knights Templars. Henry III.'s
Chancellor, Ralph Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, died at his house there
in 1244, and the King arbitrarily authorised his Treasurer, William de
Haverhill, to secure the property upon the Chancellor's death, so that
neither the Templars nor any other person should lay hands on it.[123]
To the north of it was a garden once held by William Cottrell, which he
had given to the Knights of St. John, who in turn had given it to St.
Giles' Hospital for Lepers.[124] In the year 1310, when Henry de Lacy,
Earl of Lincoln, died, another Bishop of Chichester, John de Langton,
was Chancellor, and was occupying the Inn of the see, whilst the
hospital of St. Giles was still receiving rent for Cottrell's garden. No
Black Friars house, therefore, ever existed here, nor did Henry de Lacy
die here; and all traditions to the contrary can be disproved.
In 1422 the Society of Lincoln's Inn, coming probably from Holborn, took
a lease of the Bishop of Chichester's property, and afterwards a lease
of Cottrell's garden. In 1537 Bishop Sampson sold the house and land
belonging to the see to William and Eustace Sulyard, members of the Inn,
from whom it descended to Edward Sulyard, who sold it in 1579 to the
society. Subscriptions for this purchase were received by the Benchers,
as is evident from the will of Sir Roger Cholmeley, dated 1565, who gave
to certain trustees a house in Newgate Market "to hold to them and their
heirs for ever towards the purchase of Lincoln's Inn and in the mean
season towards the repairs of the same."[125] The hall of this Inn was
pulled down and rebuilt in 1489; but since then, in 1845, a new hall,
Gothic in character, and of great dignity and beauty, has been erected.
The chapel, by Inigo Jones, dates from 1621, and the fine old gateway
from 1518.
The Inns of Chancery were at first independent of the four Inns of
Court, but, inasmuch as serjeants were chosen only from the latter, it
became the custom for students in the lesser Inns, when "they came to
ripeness," as Fortescue puts it, to enter one of the higher Inns if they
desired advancement. Gradually each Inn of Court took special interest
in certain of the lesser Inns, by sending to them Readers and by other
marks of patronage, until an impression came to exist, which was much
strengthened by various Orders in Council, that a certain governorship
of one over the other was a normal, legal, and time-honoured
institution. And in a few instances the Inns of Court put the coping
stone to this theory by purchasing the property of those lesser Inns, of
which they were the patrons. Thus Lincoln's Inn bought Furnival's on
December 16th, 1547, having previously held a lease of it, and Davy's on
November 24th, 1548; and the Inner Temple bought Lyon's Inn in 1581,
which they sold in 1863, the Globe Theatre being built upon its site.
It is doubtful whether Furnival's Inn was ever occupied by the Lords
Furnival. In 1331 the property belonged to Roger atte Bowe, a
wool-stapler, who died in that year, leaving his tenements in Holbourne
and a garden in Lyverounelane to his children. How or when it came into
the hands of the De Furnivals is not known; but in 1383 an inquisition
_post mortem_ was taken by the Mayor, at which the jurors recorded that
"William Furnyvall, knight, did not die seised of any lands or
tenements in the city of London nor in the suburbs thereof. But
that in his life time he was seised of two shops and 13
messuages with appurtenances in the street called Holbourne in
the suburb of London situated between a tenement of Jordain de
Barton on the east (_he was a Chauff-cier, i.e., an officer of
Chancery who prepared the wax for the sealing of writs to be
issued_) and a tenement of John Tonyngton on the west and which
formerly belonged to Roger atte Bogh. And William de Furnyvale
enfeoffed William Savage, parson of the church of Handsworth
and John Redesere, chaplain, of the aforesaid messuages and
shops to hold to them, their heirs and assigns for ever and
they are still thereof seised. And the messuages and shops are
worth 100s. and are held in free burgage of the king by the
service of 11s. 4d. for all services. William Furnyvall died
12th April last past. Joan his daughter, wife of Thomas Nevill,
is his nearest heir, aged 14 years and 6 months."[126]
William de Furnival had succeeded his brother in 1364. Six years before
he died--namely, in 1377--he was reported to be feeble and infirm, and
it seems most probable from the above inquisition that his Inn was
occupied by clerks. Maude, the heiress of Thomas de Neville, married
John Talbot, Lord Strange of Blackmere, who was summoned to Parliament
as Lord Furnival in 1442, and created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1446. His
son, John Talbot, second Earl, was also Treasurer of England. The fifth
Earl, Francis Talbot, sold the property in 1547, then in a ruinous
condition, to the Society of Lincoln's Inn,[127] who, after holding it
for nearly 340 years, sold it to the Prudential Assurance Company, in
1888, who demolished it for their present offices. John Staynford was
principal of the Inn in 1425, and John Courtenay in 1450. It was
sometimes called an Inn of Court,[128] and had its own chapel, which,
however, was in St. Andrew's Church.[129] A coloured drawing of its
quaint little Hall, built in 1588, is in the Guildhall Library.
Barnard's Inn, situated to the east of the second Lincoln's Inn, and
opposite to Furnival's Inn, was so named from one Lionel Barnard, who
was in occupation of it in 1435. But the real owner was John Mackworth,
who was Dean of Lincoln from 1412 to 1451. He had inherited it probably
from his brother, Thomas Mackworth, of Mackworth, co. Derby, who in
1431 became owner, having married Alice de Basing.[130] At an
inquisition _ad quod damnum_ held February 2nd, 1454, permission was
given to Thomas Atkyn, citizen of London,
"An executor of the will of John Macworthe, Dean of Lincoln
Cathedral, to assign a messuage in Holbourne called Macworth
Inne, now commonly called Barnard's Inne, to the Dean and
Chapter of the aforesaid Cathedral towards this work,
extraordinary fees were raised, and divine service in the
Chapel of St. George, in the southern part of the said church,
where the body of the said John is buried, for the soul of the
said John for ever, in part satisfaction of L20 of land which
Edward III. licenced the said Dean and Chapter to acquire. The
said messuage is held of the king in free burgage as is the
whole city of London and is worth yearly beyond deductions six
marks (L4) and there is no mean between the king and the said
Thomas Atkyn; whether he has enough of lands, &c, to support
all dues and services, &c., remaining after the said donation
and assignment or whether he will be able to be sworn on
assizes as before this donation the jurors are thoroughly
ignorant; but the country will not by this donation in defect
of the said Thomas be burdened."[131]
This Inn became attached to Gray's Inn. In 1894 the Dean and Chapter of
Lincoln Cathedral sold it to the Mercers' Company for the Mercers'
School, and the old hall of the Inn is now used as a dining-room for the
boys.
Brooke House, to the west of Furnival's Inn, stood where now is Brooke
Street, and was probably at one time an Inn for lawyers. In the reign of
Henry V. it was held by John Gascoigne, who demised it to Justice
Richard Hankeford,[132] who died in 1431, and whose heir, Thomasina,
married Sir William Bourchier, brother of the Treasurer Henry, Earl of
Essex. In 1480 his descendant, Fulk Bourchier, died, and it was found
that he had enfeoffed John Sapcote and Guy Wollaston, esquires of the
King's body (_pro corpore domini Regis_), and others, of his property in
Holborn.[133] His descendant, John Bourchier, was created Earl of Bath
in 1536, and in 1623 Bath House passed into the possession of Lord
Brooke and took his name.
The earliest evidence yet obtained respecting the name of Staple Inn is
in the will of Richard Starcolf, a wool-stapler, which was proved in the
Court of Hustings on February 14th, 1334, and dated July 22nd, 1333,
wherein he bequeaths his tenement in Holborn, called _le Stapled halle_,
to be sold for pious uses.[134] No less than four _stapled halles_ are
known to have been in existence, at this time, at various trade gates of
the city, and the meaning of the title has been much discussed.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S INN GATE, CHANCERY LANE.
_From an old print published in 1800_.]
Richard Starkulf was a Norfolk man of Danish origin, and was admitted to
the freedom of the city of London in 1310. He is described as a mercer,
but no mercer could carry on his trade in those days without belonging
to a staple. After his death, as his son Thomas was still a minor, his
lands were placed in the custody of William de Hampton, of Shrewsbury,
controller of the customs in the King's staple there, and to Richard de
Elsyng, another mercer. But the tenement of _le Stapled halle_, which he
directed should be sold, came into the hands of William de Elsyng,[135]
also a wool-stapler, a brother of Richard, and the founder of St. Mary's
Hospital, commonly known as Elsyng Spital. Five years later, when
William de Elsyng made further gifts to the hospital, an inquisition was
held to know if the gift might be made without injury to anyone, and
thereat some interesting particulars respecting his Holborn property
were recorded. We are told that
"there remains to William a tenement in the parish of St.
Andrew of Holbourne which is worth yearly in all its issues
100s.; thence should be subtracted 3s. 4d. quit rent yearly to
the church of St. Paul, London, and 6s. 8d. for yearly repairs,
the clear value thus being L4 10s.; which tenement (with
others), remaining after the aforesaid assignment are held of
the king in free burgage as is the whole of the aforesaid city
and are sufficient for the maintenance of all dues and services
and William can be put on assizes, juries and recognisances as
before his assignment."[136]