INNS of 
gentlemen after that time to be admitted fliould pay as 
follows; viz. fuch as were of Furnival’s Inn, or Davy's 
inn, one year, 40s. and fuch as were of other houfes of 
chancery one year 3I. 6s. 8d. Several attorneys and com¬ 
mon folicitors having obtained admittance into this fo- 
ciety, which was efteemed “ no fmall difparagement,” it 
was in a council, held 4 Junii, 11 Car. I. ordered, that 
none from thenceforth fliould be admitted. And the 
better to prevent the like abufe, it was farther ordered, 
that if any gentleman, after his admittance, fliould become 
an attorney, or common folicitor, his admittance fliould 
be ipfofaffo void. 
At a council, held on the day of the Nativity of St. 
John Baptift, 23 Henry VIII. it was ordered “ for a con¬ 
tinual rule to be thenceforth kept in this heufe, no gen¬ 
tleman, being a fellow of this houfe, fliould wear any cut 
or panfyd hofen or bryches, or panfyd doblct, upon pain of put¬ 
ting out of the home.” And fo ftrift were'the orders in 
thofe days, in point of habit, that, in 1 & 2 Philip and 
Mary, one Mr. Wyde of this houfe was by a fpecial or¬ 
der, made upon Afcenflon-day, fined five groats, for go¬ 
ing in his Jiudy gown in Cheapfide on a Sunday, about ten 
o’clock in the forenoon; and in Weftminfter Hall, in the 
term-time. In 30 Eliz. it was farther ordered, that if 
any fellow of this houfe fliould wear any hat in the hall 
or chapel, or go abroad to London or Weftminfter with¬ 
out a gown, he fliould be put out of commons ; and pay 
fuch a fine, before his re-admittance, as the mafters of the 
bench, then in commons, fliould afiefs. And likewife, 
that if any fellow of this houfe fliould wear long hair, or 
great ruffs, he fliould alfo be put out of commons, and 
pay fuch a fine, before he were re-admitted, as the maf¬ 
ters of the bench, then in commons, fliould afl’efs. Alfo 
in 38 Eliz. “ that if any fellow of this houfe, being a com¬ 
moner, or rcpajler, fliould, within the precinfls of this 
houfe, wear any cloak, bootes and /purrs, or long hair, to pay 
for every offence 5s. for a fine, and alfo to be put out of 
commons. And in n Car. I. it was alfo ordered, that 
what gentleman foever fliould come into the hall at meal¬ 
time, with any other upper garment than a gown, he 
fnould be fufpencjed from being a member of the fociety.” 
Equal formalit}' was obferved with refpeft to beards ; 
for, in 33 Henry VIII. an order was made, that none of 
the fellow's of this houfe, being in commons, or at repaft, 
fliould wear a beard, upon pain to pay double commons 
or repafts during fuch time as he fliould have any beard. 
But, this order being not ftriftly obferved, the penalty 
was made greater in 1 Mary, viz. that fuch as had beards 
fliould pay i2d .for every meal they continued them: and every 
man to be Jkaven, upon pain of putting out of commons. In 1 
Eliz. it was further ordered, that no fellow of this houfe 
fliould wear any beard above a fortnight's growth, and that 
whofo tranfgrefled therein fliould, for the firlt offence, 
forfeit 3s. 4d. to be paid and caft with his commons; and 
for the fecond 6s. 8d. in like manner to be paid and caft 
with his commons; and the third time to be banifhed the 
houfe. Soon after, however, the fafhion of wearing beards 
grew fo predominant, that the next year it was agreed, 
11 that orders, before that time made, touching beards, 
fliould be void and repealed.” And no limits were hence¬ 
forth put to that venerable excrefcence. 
Lincoln’s Inn firlt propofed the famous mafic which 
was prefented to the king at Chrillmas, 9 Car. I. the to¬ 
tal amount of which colt the four inns 2400I. Towards 
this fum every bencher in this fociety paid 61. every utter 
barrifter of feven years ftanding, or above, 3I. and under 
feven years ftanding 40s. and every gentleman 20s. and 
which was fo well approved by the king, that, befides his 
thanks to them, he invited an hundred of the members 
of the four inns of court to the malk at Whitehall, held 
on the Shrove Tuefday following. 
Lincoln’s Inn had anciently its dancings or revels' al¬ 
lowed at particular feafons, as well as the Temple, and 
that by the fpecial order of the fociety. For it appears 
that, in 9 Henry VI. it was ordered, “ that there Ihould 
Vgl.XI. No. 735 . 
COURT. * 8i 
be four revels that year, and no more; one at the feaft of 
All Hallown, another at the feaft of St. Erkenwald ; the 
third at the teall of the Purification of our Lady ; and the 
fourth on Midfummer-day.” Nor were thefe exercifes of 
dancing merely permitted, but infilled on. For, by an 
order made 6th Feb. 7 Jac. I. it appears, “that the un- 
der-barrillers were by decimation put out of commons, 
for example’s fake, becaufe the whole bar were offended 
by their not dancing on the Candlemas-day preceding, ac¬ 
cording to the ancient order of this fociety, when the 
judges w'ere prefent;” with a threat, that if the like fault 
were committed afterwards, they fliould be fined or dif- 
barred. 
Befides its revels, Lincoln’s Inn had alfo grand Chrift- 
maflings. Inftead of its Lord of Mifrule, it had its King 
of the Cockneys; they had alfo a Jack Straw; but in the 
time of Elizabeth he and all his adherents were utterly 
banilhed. 
Of eminent men Lincoln’s Inn boafts a far greater 
number among its members than any other of the law- 
focieties. 1. The famous fir John Fortefcue, knight, iord 
chief juftice of the king’s bench in the reign of Henry 
VI. and author of the learned difcourfe De Laudibus Legum 
Anglia. This treatife was written in France during his 
attendance there upon his royal pupil Edward prince of 
Wales, eldeft fon of king Henry VI. (to whom he was 
then chancellor, as we learn by the preamble.) Judge 
Fortefcue was a member of this fociety in the 6th of Hen¬ 
ry VI. See vol. vii. p. 589. 2. Sir Thomas Lovell, before 
mentioned, occurs in the lift of readers 15 Edw. IV. as a 
double reader, 21 Edw. IV. and held the office of treafurer 
in the next reign. He was made a banneret at the battle 
of Stoke A. D. 1487, and w'as a great favourite of Henry 
VII. who, when a Ample efquire, made him chancellor 
of the exchequer for life. He afterwards rofe to the dig¬ 
nities of a knight of the garter, treafurer of the houfehold, 
and prefident of the council, conftable of the tower, and 
was one of the executors of Henry VTI.’s will. He died 
at his houfe at Enfield in 1524, and was buried in the 
chapel of Halliwell nunnery, Shoreditch, which he had re¬ 
founded. 3. Sir Thomas More, whofe name and talents 
are too well known to need any comment, removed to 
Lincoln’s Inn from New' Inn ; in the latter of which he 
firft laid the foundation of that legal knowledge for which 
he was afterwards fo celebrated. He is the firft lay-chan¬ 
cellor upon record, and prefided in the chancery wfitli 
great abilities. He was the fon of John More, who was 
himfelf for many years a puifne judge of the king’s bench, 
and died at a very advanced age. It is faid that his fon, 
in pafling through Weftminfter Hall to the chancery, ne¬ 
ver failed to fall on his knees and aflc his blefling when¬ 
ever he faw him fitting in the court. Sir Thomas More 
had the honour to be the intimate friend of Erafmus, and 
was himfelf a great mafter of the elegant learning of the 
ancients. His well-known “ Utopia,” a kind of political 
romance, gained him the highelt reputation as an author. 
He was beheaded, for denying the king’s fupremacy, the 
6th of July 1535, aged 53. See More. 
Lambard, the great antiquary, and author of the Per¬ 
ambulation of Kent, and Spelman, the learned author of 
the “ Gloflary,” and other excellent works, were both 
members of Lincoln’s Inn. Sir John Denham, author of 
the admirable poem entitled Cooper’s Hill, firlt ftudied at 
Trinity College, Oxford, and afterwards at Lincoln’s Inn. 
William Prynne, the author of the valuable colleftion of 
Records, in four large volumes ; Selden, fometirnes Ityled 
“ the great dictator of learning to the Englilh nation,” a 
man of extenfive and profound knowledge ; '.lord chan¬ 
cellor Egerton ; Lenthall; fpeaker of the parliajnent dur¬ 
ing the Oliverian ufurpation ; Oliver St. John, earl of 
Bolingbroke, another confpicuous character of the fame 
period ; fir William Noy, author of The Complete Law¬ 
yer, and other learned and judicious works, and attorney- 
general to Charles I. fir Ranulph Crewe, chief juftice of 
the common pleas in 1664; and, laltly, the great fir Mat- 
Y the ;v 
