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The Colleges of Municipal or Common-Law-Professors and Students are Fourteen, which may be (not unfitly) stiled an Ʋniversity, where the Students of the Law and Practitioners thereof live not of common Stipends, but by their Places or Pra∣ctice, or their own Proper Revenues, or their Friend▪
Exhibition, for they are most commonly Gentle∣men by Descent, and it was the command of King James that none but such should be admitted, be∣cause others may be prone to debase the honour of the Law, and play tricks; whereas the sense of Honour, in persons of Birth and Fortune, engages them to preserve their Reputation.
These Colleges are called Inns, which was the old English Word for the Houses of Noblemen or Bi∣shops, or men of great Note, as the French word Hostel at Paris.
There are Two Inns of Sergeants, Four Inns of Courts, and Eight Inns of Chancery, of which there are Nine within the Liberty of the City, and five in the Suburbs. Those within the City Liberties are
Of these we shall briefly speak in this O••deras.
1. The Sergeants Inns are so called, because Di∣vers Judges and Serjeants at Law keep their Com∣mons, and Lodge there in Term-time. In these Inns (or Colleges) the Students of the Common-Law (when they are arrived to the highest Degree) have Lodging and Dyet. They are called Servientes ad le∣gem, Sergeants at Law. These are bred two or three years in the University, and there chiefly versed in Logick and Rhetorick, which are expedient for a Lawyer, as also in the Theory of the Civil-Law, and some knowledge in the French Tongue as well as Latine, then the Student is admitted to be one of the Four Inns of Court, where he is first called a Moot-man, and after about seven years Study, is chosen an Ʋtter Barrister; and having then spent twelve years more, and performed his Exercises (of which more hereafter,) he is chosen a Bencher, and sometime after a Reader. During the Reading, which heretofore was three Weeks and three Days, as afore-mentioned, the Reader keeps a Constant and sumptuous Feasting, Inviting the Chief Nobles, Judges, Bishops, Great Officers of the Kingdom, and sometimes the King himself, that it costs them sometimes 800 l. or 1000 l. Afterwards he wears a long Robe different from other Barristers, and is then in a capacity to be made a Sergeant at Law, when his Majesty shall be pleased to call him, which is in this Manner.
When the Number of Sergeants is small, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, by the advice and consent of the other Judges, makes choice of six or eight more or less, of the most grave and learned of the Inns of Court, and presents their Names to the Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper, who sends by the Kings Writ to each of them, to appear on such a Day before the King to receive the State and Degree of a Serjeant at Law; at the appointed time, they being habited in Robes of two
Colours. viz. Brown and Blew, come accompani∣ed with the Students of the Inns of Courts, and at∣tended by a Train of Servants and Retainers, in pecu∣liar Cloath-Liveries, to Westminster-Hall, and there in publick take a Solemn Oath, and are Cloathed with certain Robes and Coifs, without which they may be seen no more in publick: After this, they Feast the great Persons of the Nation, in a very Magnificent and Princely manner; give Gold Rings to the Prin∣ces of the Royal Family, the Archbishops, Chancel∣lor and Treasurer, to the value of 40 s. each Ring, and to Earls and Bishops Rings of 20 s. To other Great Officers, to Barons, &c. Rings of less value.
Out of these are chosen all the Judges of the King's Bench and Common-Pleas; Wherefore all those Judges do always wear the white Linnen Coif, which is the principal Badge of a Sergeant, and which he has had the priviledge to wear at all times, even in the King's presence, and whilst he spake to the King, though antiently no Subject may be so much as cap∣ped in the King's presence. When any of the Judges are wanting, the King by advice of the Council makes choice of one of those Sergeants at Law to supply his place, and by Letters Patents Sealed by the Lord Chancellor, who Constitutes him (sitting in the middle of the rest of the Judges) by a set Speech, Declaring to the Serjeant that upon this occasion he is called to do Justice with Expedition and Impartiality to His Majesties Subjects, causing the Letters Patents to be read, and then Departs; after which the Lord Chief Justice places the said Sergeant on the Bench, Junior to all the rest, and having taken an Oath well and truly to Serve the King and his People in his Office, to take no Brib••, to do equal and speedy Justice to all, &c. He sets himself to the Execution of his Charge. Being thus advanced, he hath great honour and a conside∣rable Salary, besides perquisites, for each one hath
1000 l. a year from the King. His habit of a Sergeant is somewhat altered; his long Robe and Cap, his Hood and Coif, are the same; but there is besides a Cloak put over him, and closed on his Right Shoulder, and instead of a Caputium lined with Mi∣never, or de minuto vario, divers small pieces of white rich Fur; only the two Lord Chief-Justices, and the Lord Chief-Baron have their Hoods, Sleeves, and Collars turned up with Ermine.
☞ Note that the two Sergeants Inns belong to the twelve Judges, and about twenty-six Serge∣ants.
The Fees in old times from a Client to a Serge∣ant at Law, for advice in his Chamber, or for plead∣ing in any Court of Judicature, was but 20 s. and the Fee of a Barrister 10 s. which is now more then is given in our Neighbour Nations, but at present it is usual to give some some Sergeants 10 l. and some 20 l. and to a Barrister half as much at the pleading of any Considerable Cause; so that some Lawyers gain 3000 or 4000 l. yearly in Fees, and purchase great Estates in a few years, and are sometimes ad∣vanced to be Peers of the Realm, as late times es∣pecially have shewn.
When there was a call of Serjeants at Law, it was almost incredible to hear of their preparations in old times, they have often kept their Feasts in Ely House, which was the Bishop of Ely's Palace in Hol∣born.
There was a call of Seven Sergeants, in the year 1464. 4. E. 4. in Michaelmas Term, who kept their Feast in this Palace, to which Sir Matthew Philip, Lord Mayor of London, with the Aldermen, Sheriffs, and the most eminent Commoners, were in∣vited, to which they came; but the Lord Gray of Ruthen, then Lord Treasurer of England, was placed (against the minds of the Serjeants, as they said) before the Lord Mayor, who thereupon took such
Distaste that he went away with the Aldermen, She∣riffs, and Commons, without partaking of the Feast, to the great trouble of the New Sergeants, as well as the dissatisfaction of the City.
There was another Feast kept there for Five days by the Sergeants, in the Year 1531. 23 Henry VIII. where the King, Queen, and Foreign Ambassadors Dined, as also the Lord Mayor, the Judges, the Ba∣rons of the Exchequer, the Aldermen of the City, and several Eminent Persons, Merchants and Pub∣lick Officers, and many Gentlemen of Quality. There were brought to the Slaughter-House 24 great Beefs, at 26 s. 8 d. a piece, from the Sham∣bles; one Carkass of an Oxe at 24 s. One hundred Fat Muttons, at 2 s. 10 d. a piece. 51 great Veals, at 4 s. 8 d. a piece; 34 Porks at 3 s. 8 d. a piece; 91 Piggs at 6 d. each; 10 Dozen of Capons of one Poulterer, (for they had three) at 20 d. a piece; Capons of Kent 9 Dozen and a half at 12 d. a piece; Capons Course, Nineteen Dozen at 6 d. a piece; Cocks of Gross 7 Dozen and 9, at 8 d. a piece; Cocks Course 14 Dozen and 8 at 3 d. a piece; Pullets the best 2 d half penny, other Pul∣lets two pence; Pigeons 37 Dozen, at 10 d. the Dozen; Swans 14 Dozen; Larks 340 Dozen, at 5 d. the Dozen, &c. with all other Appurtenances needful for a Splendid and Magnificent Entertain∣ment. Which is mentioned the rather, to shew the Change of Prices, this being but 150 Years ago.
The two Temples near Temple-Bar, were former∣ly the dwelling of the Knights Templers, who foun∣ded them in the Reign of Henry the II. These Tem∣plers took beginning about the Year 1118. Their first profession was for safeguard of Pilgrims, com∣ing to visit the Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and increased mightily. They bare Crosses of red Cloth on their uppermost Garments, to be known from others, they
were called Templers, or Knights of the Temple, be∣cause their first Mansion was near the Temple in Je∣rusalem, granted to them by King Baldwin. Many Noblemen afterwards in all parts of Christendom became Brethren of this Order, and built themselves Dwellings in every great Town, but this at London was their chief Dwelling in England. Matthew Pa∣ris Reports, that they were first so Poor, that they had but one Horse to Serve two of them; but they be∣came very Rich and Pompous afterwards, and en∣tertained the Nobility, and Foreign Ambassadors, and the Prince Himself frequently; their Seal for the reason aforesaid, was two Men riding upon one Horse. Many Parliaments and Great Councels have been there kept, as appears in our Historys. In the Year 1308. all the Templers in England and all Christen∣dom were apprehended, and committed to divers Prisons, for Heresie and other Articles, by means of Philip King of France, who procured them to be Condemned by a General Councel, whose Lands were given by a Councel at Vienna, Anno 1324, to the Knights Hospitallers, called the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who took the Island of Rhodes from the Turk, and bravely maintained it, till the time of Solyman the Magnificent; who after a most sharp and tedious Siege of six Months, took it, when they had Valorously kept it about 200 Years, and made a dismal slaughter in Solymans great Army consist∣ing of about 200000 Men, and 300 Gallies, &c. These Knights have since Inhabited Malta, another Island in the Mediterranean Sea, given them by the King of Spain. In the Reign of Edward the III. this Temple was purchased by the Students of the Com∣mon Law, which is above 300 Years ago: they are called the Inner and Middle Temple, in Relation to Essex-House, which was part of the Knights Tem∣plers, and called the Outer-Temple, because Sealed without Temple-Bar. As to the Casualties of Fire
and Tumults, by which this Temple suffered, (but now restored in a Beautiful and Stately manner,) we re∣fer to the Chapter that particularly Treats of such things.