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Replies to Minor Queries.
_Admissions to Inns of Court_ (Vol. viii., p. 540.).--The following
particulars may be of service to your correspondent who requires
information upon the subject of the matriculations at the inns of court.
The books of Lincoln's Inn, which record the calls to the bar and other
proceedings of the Society, commence in the second year of the reign of
Henry VI., 1423. Those of the Inner Temple, which contain the admittances
in 1547, and the calls to the bar in 1590; of the Middle Temple, which
contain a regular series of admissions and calls, about the year 1600; and
of Gray's Inn, about the year 1650. The earlier records of Gray's Inn were
destroyed by fire, but the Harleian MS. No. 1912., in the British Museum,
contains:
An alphabetical list of gentlemen admitted to that society, with the dates
of their admission, from 1521 to 1674.
Table of the admittances into Gray's Inn, declaring the names of the
gentlemen, the town and country whence they came, and the day, month, and
year when admitted, from the year 1626 to 1677.
Arms and names of noblemen and knights admitted to the said society.
An alphabetical list of all persons called to the bar by the said society.
The Lansdowne MS. No. 106., which is also in the British Museum, contains:
Names of benchers, associates, utter barristers, &c. of Lincoln's Inn, and
the same of the Inner Temple; and of the students of the several Inns of
Court, apparently about the end of the reign of Elizabeth.