Memorials of Old London Part 13

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 t.i.tle 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 24 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 100, and from that date we read no more of the chancery being held in the Temple Church. In grat.i.tude to William de Langeford, whose services had secured to the Order the rest.i.tution 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 Princ.i.p.al 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 20,[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 70,000. 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 inst.i.tution. 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 a.s.signs 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 a.s.surance Company, in 1888, who demolished it for their present offices. John Staynford was princ.i.p.al 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 d.a.m.num_ 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 a.s.sign 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 20 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 (4) 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 a.s.signment or whether he will be able to be sworn on a.s.sizes 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 Ess.e.x. 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 pa.s.sed 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 t.i.tle has been much discussed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 4 10s.; which tenement (with others), remaining after the aforesaid a.s.signment 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 a.s.sizes, juries and recognisances as before his a.s.signment."[136]

The next person to hold Staple Inn was Thomas de Brenchesle.[137] No record of his appointment to any duties at Holborn Bars has been discovered, but on April 12th, 1343, he was ordered to "attach" Thomas Tirwhitt, of Pokelynton,

"who has taken without the realm twelve sarples of wool uncustomed and unc.o.keted (_i.e._, unsealed), as the king is certainly informed, and bring him before the council with all speed to answer for his contempt."[138]

And on April 1st, 1349, Thomas de Brynchesle was ordered,

"upon pain of forfeiture, to be at Westminster with all the evidence in his possession for the time when he was appointed with others to supervise the state of the king's staple in Flanders, before the king and his council on the morrow of the close of Easter next, to inform them of things that will be set forth to him."[139]

It seems apparent, then, that Staple Inn was not unconnected in those days with the staple of wool.

The Ordinance of the Staple was issued in 1313,[140] but there are good grounds for believing that long before this date the site was already in use as a custom house and wool court. The ordinance was embodied in a statute of the realm in 1353.[141] London was no longer mentioned as a staple, Westminster being subst.i.tuted, the bounds of which were defined as commencing at Temple Bar, and ending at Tothill.[142] But it is likely that the Inn at Holborn Bars was still occupied by attorneys who practised for their patrons of the Staple, and that the Merchants for Wools still had their meetings there. In 1401 Hamond Elyot sued a plaint of debt against Martyn Dyne, of Haydon, Norfolk, for the sum of 26 2s. 3d., in the Court of Staple at Westminster;[143] and one hundred years later, John Dyne, his descendant, also of Haydon, Norfolk, was a member of Staple Inn. In his will, proved 1505, he gives the names of the company of the Inn. Edmund Paston, grandson of the Judge, was a member in 1467, and we learn from one of his letters that the Inn had a Princ.i.p.al at that date.

In 1529, John Knighton and Alice, his wife, daughter of John Copwode of the Remembrancer's Office of the Exchequer, sold the inheritance of the Inn to the Ancients of Gray's Inn, after which there were other feoffments in trust, the last of which, that we know of, dated June 4th, 1622, being that of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, to Edward Moseley, Attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster and others, Readers of Gray's Inn, "to hold to them, their heirs and a.s.signs of the chief lords of that fee by the services thence due and of right accustomed."[144] The society eventually became its own master, and in 1811 had no connection whatever with Gray's Inn. It was dissolved in 1884, when its property was sold to a firm of auctioneers, who parted with it in the same year, the Government buying the southern portion for an extension of the Patent Office, and the Prudential a.s.surance Company the remainder. The lawyers still congregate there; the only difference being a change of landlords, though the hall has been leased to the Inst.i.tute of Actuaries. The frontage of the Inn dates from 1570 and 1586, the hall from 1581.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL.]

Davy's Inn is most probably the correct name of the Inn, which for three centuries past has unaccountably, possibly through Stow's mistake, gone by the name of Thavies Inn. No record has yet been found earlier than the reign of Queen Elizabeth in which the name of this Inn is any other than Davy's or David's. The will of John Davy was proved in the Court of Hustings in 1398.[145] He desired to be buried in the church of St.

Andrew. To Alice, his wife, he left his lands and tenements in Holborn for life, with remainder to John Osbern and his wife, Emma, testator's daughter, in tail; with remainder in trust for the maintenance of a chantry in St. Mary's Chapel in the church of St. Andrew. The annual proceeds of this latter bequest were still being received by the church in the reign of Henry VIII. The testator was an attorney, and his name occurs in many legal doc.u.ments relating to Holborn in the reign of Edward III.; he was also a.s.sociated with others of the neighbourhood in various pavage commissions. It is quite possible, however, and probable, that the Inn which bore his name was an Inn long before his time. It was bought by Lincoln's Inn in 1548, and sold in 1769. It has since been demolished.

New Inn, in the Strand, also called St. Mary's Inn, was a guest Inn, says Sir George Buck, writing in 1615, hired by Sir John Fineux, Chief Justice of King's Bench, in the reign of Edward IV., for 6 per annum, to place therein those students who were lodged in "la Baillie," in a house called St George's Inn, near the upper end of St. George's Lane.

In the year 1348 the will of John Tavy, armourer, was proved in the Court of Hustings.[146] He therein orders that after the decease of his wife an Inn, where the apprentices were wont to dwell, should be sold, and the proceeds devoted to the maintenance of a chantry. These apprentices are not in the original will described as _ad legem_, but these words have crept into a subsequent transcription. The testator was, in 1342, one of the four members of the Company of Armourers appointed by the mayor and aldermen, and sworn to observe and supervise the then new regulations respecting the making and selling of armour.[147] He would certainly have had his apprentices, and it may be he referred to them in his will. He would have been a member of the Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the men of the Mistery of Armourers, St. George being the Armourers' patron saint. This fact seems to suggest that his Inn became St. George's Inn, which would have stood not far from the Sessions House, built by William de Langeford.

The _Six Clerks Inn_, formerly Herfleet's Inn, and then Kidderminster Inn, was on the west side of Chancery Lane, opposite the Rolls Office, and was probably an Inn of Chancery, though unattached, at a very early date. In 1454 Nicholas Wymbyssh, one of the clerks of the King's Chancery, a.s.signed it to the prior of Necton Park, co. Lincoln, to hold of the King in free burgage.[148] It was then in the parish of St.

Dunstan. It acquired the name of Kidderminster Inn from John Kidderminster, one of the society, who purchased it at the time of the dissolution of the monastery. In the eighteenth century the Six Clerks Inn Society moved to the north-western end of Chancery Lane. Stone Buildings, part of Lincoln's Inn, now occupies the site.

_Cursitors' Inn_, also in Chancery Lane, was sometimes known as Bacon's Inn, having been founded, in 1574, by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In 1478 it was known as _the Bores hedde_, and then consisted of one tenement and a large garden, about two and a half acres in extent, bounded on the north by the grounds of the Old Temple and of Staple Inn; on the east by that property of the Convent of Malmesbury which had formerly been known as "Lyncolnesynne"; and on the south by a lane now known as Cursitor Street. The rent was then being paid to the Corporation of the City of London, who were probably feoffees of the bishopric of Lincoln; but in 1561 they purchased it of Edward VI., into whose hands it had come at the dissolution of chantries and chapels; and they, in 1574, granted it to Sir Nicholas Bacon,[149] who there housed the cursitor clerks. There were twenty-four cursitor clerks--_i.e._, Clerks of the Course--whose business was to draw up the writs. The Cursitor Baron administered the oaths to the sheriffs, bailiffs, and officers of the Customs, etc. Cursitor Street perpetuates the name of the Inn.

_Clifford's Inn_, adjacent to, and south of, the House of Converts, came into the hands of Edward I. in 1298, for the debts of Malcolm de Harley, Escheator on this side Trent. The Earl of Richmond was placed in custody of it, but in 1310 Edward II. gave it to Robert de Clifford, a customs'

officer of the Wool Staple, and Marshal of England.[150] When he died in 1316 a third of it only was granted to his widow. During the nonage of the heir in 1345, Edward III. put his clerk, David de Wollore, who was also Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery, in charge of the property.[151] It is said to have possessed its society at this period. It pa.s.sed from the Clifford family in June, 1468, when a grant was made to "John Kendale, Esq., and his heirs male, of Clifford Inne, late of John Clifford, knight, late Lord Clifford, by reason of forfeiture."[152] The Society of Clifford's Inn was the last of the Inns of Chancery to dissolve.

Clement's Inn, an Inn of Chancery attached to the Inner Temple, was divided within recent years from New Inn, which belonged to the Middle Temple, only by iron railings with a gate. Its origin is unknown, but its name connects it either with St. Clement's Church, or St. Clement's Well. It was certainly in existence before the time of Henry VII.

_Lyon's Inn_ is said to have been an Inn of Chancery in the time of Henry V., but the evidence on this point is uncertain. It was situated in Newcastle Street, Strand, and was attached to the Inner Temple, who bought it in 1581. The Aldwych improvements have wiped out the Globe Theatre which had succeeded it.

Besides the Inns of Court and Chancery, there existed also Inns for Judges and Serjeants, of which the most important were Scrope's Inn, opposite to St. Andrew's Church, in Holborn, and the two Serjeants' Inns in Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, which, however, cannot be treated of here.

Doc.u.ments of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries make it quite clear that Staple Inn, Furnival's Inn, Brooke House, and, of course, the old Inn of the Earl of Lincoln, in Shoe Lane, were all within the city boundaries. It was not until December, 1645, that the House of Lords pa.s.sed a resolution that the Inns of Court were to form a province by themselves,[153] and the resolution was interpreted to cover also their Inns of Chancery dependencies, so that Furnival's Inn and Staple Inn became cut off from the city, and all the Inns became extra-parochial.

It will have been noticed that the properties of the Inns of Court, and most of the Inns of Chancery, came to be held directly of the King. The legal artifice of feoffment to "uses" was adopted in regard to most of these properties; but though the feoffees were chiefly legal persons, they did not apparently always represent the societies; nor is it quite clear whom they did represent; but the societies had no security of tenure until they purchased their respective properties.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LINCOLN'S INN HALL: THE LORD CHANCELLOR'S COURT.

_From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd._]

It has been shown that the deep hollow, at the bottom of which flowed the stream of Holborn, formed a natural barrier between the walled city and its suburb. It also divided the guilds and trade a.s.sociations of London from that plexus of schools of laws which at first radiated from Holborn Bars. The guilds recognised the leading of the Mayor and Commonalty; the schools of law looked for direction chiefly to the law officers of the Crown. In Florence, and other cities of the Middle Ages, the a.s.sociations of judges, attorneys, and wool-merchant lawyers were as much a part of civic and communal life as any other guild; the different conditions which existed in England led to different consequences.