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common pleas, the onlj court at that time having 

 jurisdiction in civil cases, was, by Magna Charta, 

 established permanently at Westminster, it is sup- 

 posed, that many lawyers theretofore dispersed in 

 various parts of the country, began to have fixed 

 residences near this court; and that about this 

 time the professors of the common law being ex- 

 cluded from the universities, for the purpose of 

 establishing the study of the common law without 

 the aid of the church, formed themselves into 

 voluntary societies and a collegiate order, and 

 established a sort of university of their own, which 

 at different times was favoured with the countenance 

 and support of the crown. 



There are, at present, four Inns of Court, the 

 names of which have before been mentioned ; and 

 several Inns of Chancery, belonging respectively to 

 these Inns of Court. The former are occupied by 

 barristers and students, and the latter by attor- 

 neys, solicitors and their clerks. Fortescue, speak- 

 ing of these Inns in his time, says that the laws of 

 England being learned and practised in three dif- 

 ferent languages, namely, English, Norman French, 

 and Latin, could not be so well studied in the uni- 

 versities where Latin was mostly in use ; but were 

 studied in a public manner and place, much more 

 commodious and proper for the purpose, than in 

 any university ; that the situation of the place was 

 between London and Westminster, and not in the 

 heart of the city itself, where the great confluence 

 and multitude of the inhabitants might disturb 

 them in their studies, but in a private place, sepa- 

 rate and distinct by itself in the suburbs, nearer 

 to the courts of justice, that the students, at their 

 leisure, might daily and duly attend with the 

 greatest ease and convenience. The Inns of Court, 

 although they remain in the same place as in the 

 days of Fortescue, are now in the midst of the 

 business and bustle of the town. Fortescue says, 

 that the students in the Inns of Chancery, of 

 which Inns there were ten or more in his time, 

 were young men, who studied there the first prin- 

 ciples of the law ; and that after having made some 

 progress there, and being more advanced in years, 

 they were admitted into the Inns of Court. In 

 these greater Inns, he says a student could not well 

 be maintained under eighty scuta, (a very large 

 sum. in those days), and if he had a servant to wait 

 upon him, as for the most part they had, the ex- 

 pense was proportionably more, and that for that 

 reason, the students were sons of persons of qual- 

 ity ; those of an inferior rank not being able to bear 

 the expense of maintaining and educating their 

 children in that way. And as to the merchants, 

 he says they seldom cared to lessen their stock in 

 trade by being at such large yearly expenses. So 

 that there was scarcely to be found throughout the 

 kingdom, an eminent lawyer, who was not a gen- 

 tleman by birth and fortune, and consequently, they 

 had a greater regard for their character and honour 

 than those who were bred in another way. 

 There was in the Inns of Court and Inns of Chan- 

 cery, a sort of academy or gymnasium, fit for per- 

 sons of their station, where they learned singing 

 and all kinds of music, dancing and such other ac- 

 complishments and diversions, as were suitable to 

 their quality and usually practised at court. At 

 other times, out of term, the greater part applied 

 themselves to the study of the law. Upon festi- 

 val days, and after the offices of the church were 

 over, they employed themselves in the study of 

 sacred and profane history. There, says our author, 



every thing good and virtuous was to be learned, 

 and all vice was discouraged and banished ; so that 

 knights, barons and the greatest nobility of the 

 kingdom, often placed their children in those Inns 

 of Court, not so much to make the law their study, 

 much less to live by the profession, (having large 

 patrimonies of their own,) as to form their man- 

 ners and to preserve them from the contagion of 

 vice. 



These Inns for a long time after the days of 

 Fortescue bore a very strong resemblance to uni- 

 versities. They conferred their degrees of appren- 

 tice, or barrister and sergeant at law, answering to 

 the degrees of bachelor and doctor of law con- 

 ferred in the universities. There were lectures or 

 readings which the students attended. Prayers 

 were daily read in the chapels belonging to the 

 Inns. Questions were daily mooted. The stu- 

 dents constantly lodged there, and dined and sup- 

 ped in the halls of the Inns in vacation, as well as 

 in term time. The Inns were impaled and the 

 gates were closed at a certain hour in the evening, 

 and opened at a certain hour in the morning, in 

 like manner as at the universities. Each Inn had 

 rules and regulations regarding the conduct of the 

 students much like those at the universities. And 

 the members were accountable to the heads of 

 their Inns for their conduct, with as much strict- 

 ness as the students at Oxford or Cambridge are 

 now. 



Lord Coke says, speaking in reference to his 

 time, " As there be in the universities of Cam- 

 bridge and Oxford divers degrees of general sophis- 

 ters, bachelors, masters, doctors, of whom be 

 chosen men for eminent and judicial places both in 

 the church and ecclesiastical courts, so in the pro- 

 fession of the law, there are mootmen, which are 

 those that argue readers' cases in Houses of Chan- 

 cery, both in terms and grand vacation. Of moot- 

 men, after eight years study or thereabouts are 

 chosen utterbarristers. Of these are chosen read- 

 ers in Inns of Chancery. Of utterbarristers, after 

 they have been of that degree twelve years at least 

 are chosen benchers or ancients ; of which one that 

 is of the puisne sort reads yearly in the summer 

 vacation, and is called a single reader, and one of 

 the ancients that had formerly read, reads in Lent 

 vacation, and is called a double reader, and com- 

 monly it is between his first and second reading, 

 about nine or ten years. And out of these the 

 king makes choice of his attorney and solicitor 

 general, his attorney of the court of wards and 

 liveries, and attorney of the duchy, and of these 

 readers are sergeants elected by the king, and are 

 by the king's court called ad statum et gradum ser- 

 vientis ad legem ; and out of these the king electeth 

 one or two or three as please him, to be his ser- 

 geants, which are called king's sergeants. Of ser- 

 geants are by the king also constituted the honour- 

 able and reverend judges and sages of the law. 

 For the young student, which most commonly 

 cometh from one of the universities for his entrance 

 or beginning, were first instituted and erected eight 

 houses of Chancery to learn there the elements of 

 the law, that is to say, Clifford's Inn, Lyon's Inn, 

 Clement's Inn, Barnard's Inn, Staple's Inn, Fur- 

 mi viil's Inn, Tbavie's Inn, and New Inn, and each 

 of these houses consist of forty or thereabouts. 

 For the readers, utterbarristers, mootmen, and in- 

 ferior students, are four famous and renowned col- 

 leges, or houses of court, called the Inner Temple, 

 to which the first three houses of chancery apper 



