A philologicall commentary, or, An illustration of the most obvious and useful words in the lavv with their distinctions and divers acceptations, as they are found as well in reports antient and modern as in records and memorials never printed : usefull for all young students of the law / by Edward Leigh ...

APPRENTICE.

Apprentices, quasi apprehensores, apprendre to learn, are such persons who do serve a certain time, (for the most part seven years) by pact for the learning of any Art, it is from the French word Apprendre, which signifies to learn in any Art, thence they have apprentisage, and we ap∣prentiship,* 1.1 as also apprentisage, davocas plaidans▪ for the apprentiship of the Lawyers, and thence with us some are called apprentices to the Law, and sometime apprentices to the Bar, who are those who are permitted salutare cancellos fori vel barr•••• there publickly to plead, in the time of H. 6. Fortes∣cue saith, there were in the Ins of Court and Chan∣cery, at the least 2000 of them, which prodigi∣ous number may be admired, since in the Parlia∣ment Rolls, 20 Ed. 1. Rot. 5. in dorso: it is there ordained in his verbis, De Attornatis & apprenti∣cii••,

D. Rex injunxit I. de Metingham, & sociis suis, quód ipsi per eorum discretionem provideant & ordinent certum numerum de quolibet Comitatu de melioribus & legalioribus, & libentiùs addis∣centibus, secundum quod intellexerunt quòd Curiae suae & populo de regno melius valere poterit, & majus commodum fuerit. Et quod ipsi quos ad hoc elige∣rent Curiam sequantur, & se de negotiis in eadem Curia intromittant, & alii non. Et videtur Regi & ejus Concilio, quod septies viginti sufficere pote∣rint, apponant tamen praesati Iusticiarii plures si vide∣rint esse faciendum, vel numerum anticipent, & de aliis remanentibus fiat per discretionem eorundem Iusticia∣riorum, &c.

These Apprentices of Law were prohibited to come to the Parliament at Coventry by Henry the fourth, in the sixth year of his Reign, as ap∣pears by a Writ directed to a Sheriff thus, Nolumus autem, quòd tu seu aliquis alius vicecomes Regni nostri praedicti, aut apprenticius, five aliquis alius homo ad Legem aliqualiter sit elect, &c. therefore this Parli∣ment was called Parliamentum indoctum and had in its design nothing more then the ruine of the Church and Laws.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mr▪ Seldens notes on Fortescue. pag. 3.