<j3 INNSof 
certainty of the places, that the eftablifhment of inns of 
court was foon after this time completely effeCted. In the 
reign of Edward III', there is exprefs mention of thefe le¬ 
gal feminaries (and it is the firft which occurs), in a de- 
mile from the lady Clitford of the houfe near Fleet-ftreet, 
called Clifford's Inn, apprenticiis de banco ; by which is 
meant, to the lawyers belonging to the court of Common 
Pleas. 
Thefe inns, or hojlds as they were anciently called, 
were from their firft inftitution divided into two forts, 
denominated inns of court, and inns of chancery. The for¬ 
mer were fo named from the Itudents in them being to 
lerve the courts of judicature, orbecaufe thefe lioufes an¬ 
ciently received the fons of noblemen and the better fort 
of gentlemen, “who (fays Fortefcue)'did there not only 
ftudy the laws to lerve the courts of juftice and profit 
their country, but did further learn to dance, to ling, to 
play on inftru.ments, on the ferial days, and to ftudy divi¬ 
nity on the feftival, ufing fuch exercifes as they did who 
were brought up in the king’s courtfo that thefe liof- 
tels, being nurferies or feminaries of the court, taking their 
denomination from the end wherefore they were inftituted, 
were called inns of court. The latter were called inns of 
chancery, probably hecaufe they were appropriated to fuch 
clerks as chiefly ftudied the forming of writs, which was 
the province of the curiitofs, who are officers of chancery, 
and fuch as belong to the courts of Common Pleas and 
King’s Bench. Thefe inns of chancery formerly were a 
fort of preparatory houfes for younger ftudents, as well 
as for fuch forming of writs above-mentioned, and many 
were entered here before they were admitted to the inns of 
court. “ Quia Jludentes, See." fays Fortefcue, “ becaufe the 
ftudents in them are for the greater part young men learn¬ 
ing the firft elements of the law; and becoming good pro¬ 
ficients therein, as they grow up, are taken into the greater 
hofels, which are called inns of court." 
The ftudy of the law being anciently held in high efti- 
rnation, the inns of court, as the chief fchools for that 
ftudy, were then only acceflible to men of rank and fortune. 
“In thefe greater hoftels,” fays the above author, “no 
ftudent can be maintained at lefs charge yearly than lxxx 
feutes, (twenty marks, a great fum in thofe days) ; and if 
he had a fervant with him, as many of them have, then is 
his charge the greater; fo that, by i eafon of this great ex¬ 
pence, the fons of gentlemen do only ftudy the law in 
thefe hoftels, the vulgar fort of people being not able to 
undergo fo great a charge; and merchants are feldom 
willing to lefien their traffic thereby.” 
In the time of Fortefcue juft quoted, who was chief 
juftice of the King’s Bench in the reign of Henry VI. the 
inns of court, or hoftels, fiourifhed much ; for there were 
then belonging to the lawyers’ univerfity, he tells us, four 
inns of court (the fame now in being,) each containing two 
hundred perfons ; and ten inns of chancery, and in each of 
jhem one hundred perfons.” This was one more than at 
prefent, there being now but nine, and of thofe only one 
of the fame which were then, viz. Clifford's Inn. 
The inns of court and chancery are governed by maf- 
ters, principals, benchers, ftewards, and other proper offi¬ 
cers ; and the chief of them have chapels for divine fer- 
vice, and all of them public halls for exercifes, readings, 
and arguments, which the ftudents were obliged to per¬ 
form and attend for a competent number of years, before 
admitted to fpeak at the bar, &c. The admiflion and 
forms for this purpofe mult be in one of the inns of court, 
not in the inns of chancery. Thefe focieties or colleges, 
neverthelefs, are no corporation, nor have any judicial 
power over their members, but have certain orders among 
themfelves, which, by confent, have the force of laws : 
for light oft'ehces, perfons are only cx-commoned, or put out 
of commons; for greater, they lofe their chambers, and 
are expelled ; and when expelled out of one fociety, fhall 
never be received by any of the others. The inns of 
chancery are moftly inhabited by attorneys, folicitors, and 
COURT, 
clerks; and belong to forne or other of the four principal 
inns of court, in the following order. 
I. The INNER TEMPLE. 
The Temple is well known to have taken its name from 
that gallant religious military order, the knights temp¬ 
lars, who came into England in the reign of king Stephen. 
Their firft houfe was in Holborn, near the fite of the pre¬ 
fent Southampton-ftreet, and was called the Old Temple ; 
but in the fucceeding reign they began the foundation 
of a nobler ItruCture, oppofite the end of Chancery-lane, 
then called New-ftreet, which, to diftinguifh it from the 
former, was called the New Temple. This occupied all 
that fpace of ground from the inonaftery of the Carme¬ 
lites, or White Friars, in Fleet-ftreet, weft ward to Eflex 
Houfe, without Temple Bar, where Ellex-ftreet now ftands, 
and fome part of that too, as appears by the firft grant of 
it to fir William Paget, by Henry VIII. 
That the templars feated themfelves at the New Tem¬ 
ple, is evident from the dedication of their church, in the 
year 1185; where they continued till the fuppreifion of 
their order, in 1310. Between thefe two periods it was 
again dedicated, viz. in 1240, probably on account of the 
greater part being re-edified. On the diflolution, the ef- 
tates, together with the houfe in London, devolving upon 
the crown, Edward II. in 1313, bellowed the latter on 
Thomas earl of Lancafter. After that nobleman’s attain¬ 
der, a grant was made to Adomar or Aimer de Valence 
earl of Pembroke, by the fame monarch, of “ the whole 
place and houfes called the New Temple, at London, 
with the ground called Fiquet’s Croft, and all the tener 
ments and rents, with the appurtenances, that belong to 
the templars in the city of London and l'uburbs thereof, 
with the land called Flete Croft, part of the pofteffions of 
the faid New Temple.” 
From Aimer de Valence this ftruflure came into the 
pofteffion of Hugh le Defpencer the younger; and on his 
execution, in the firft year of Edward III. the right once 
more reverted to the crown. Here it would probably 
have continued : but by a decree, which bellowed gene¬ 
rally the lands of the templars upon the hofpitals of St. 
John of Jerufalem, the above monarch gra-nted this man- 
fion to the knights of that order in England. Thefe pof- 
felfed it in the 18th year of his reign, when they were 
forced to repair the Temple bridge; but they foon after 
demifed it for the rent of ten pounds per annum, to cer¬ 
tain ftudents of the common law, who are fuppofed to 
have removed from Thaive’s Inn, in Holborn. 
Before we finilh the hillory of the Temple as a monaf- 
tic inftitution, it may be neceflary to remark, that fuch 
was its rank and importance, that not only parliaments 
and general councils frequently afiembled there, but it 
was a fort of general depoiitory or treafury for the great- 
ell perfons in the nation, as well as the place where 
many'of the crown-jewels were kept. Matthew Paris in¬ 
forms us, that, in the year 1232, Hubert de Burgh earl 
of Kent, being prifoner in the Tower of London, the 
king (Henry III ) was informed that he had confiderable 
wealth laid up in the New Temple, under the cuftody of 
the templars, which being deiirous to appropriate to his 
own ufe, he lent for the mailer of the Temple, and quef- 
tioned him refpefting it, who confefted that money had 
been delivered into the cuftody of himfelf and brethren, 
but he was unacquainted with the extent of the fum, and 
could by no means deliver it into the king’s hands, with¬ 
out the efpecial licenfe of him who committed it to eccle- 
fiaftical protection. On this the king’s treafurer and juf- 
ticiar of the exchequer was fent to require a refignatioa 
from Hubert, who complying with the unjuft demand, 
the keys were prefented by the knights ; and Henry, af¬ 
ter commanding an exaft inventory to be taken of the 
treafure, feized on the whole, confifting, befides ready 
money, of veflels of gold and filver, and many precious 
Hones of confiderable value. In 1283, Edward I. taking 
