The constitution of parliaments in England deduced from the time of King Edward the Second, illustrated by King Charles the Second in his Parliament summon'd the 18 of February 1660/1, and dissolved the 24 of January 1678/9 : with an appendix of its sessions / observed by Sr. John Pettus ... Knight.

CHAP. XVI. Of the Masters of Chancery.

[ 1] THE Secretaries of State did bring up the Rear of the State Officers, and now the Masters of Chancery do bring up the Rear of the Assistants; and though I have spoke something of the Master of the Rolls, partly as chief of the twelve Masters of Chancery; yet, there he was considered as Master of the Rolls, (or Re∣cords) rather than one of the twelve Masters of Chancery, whereof (as I said)

he is the chief; and these twelve are called Masters in Ordinary.

2. For there are also other Masters in Chancery, called Extraordinary, which are of an uncertain number, according to the businesses of the respective Counties wherein they are imployed.

3. As for the twelve, they usually are cho∣sen out of Barresters of the Common Law, or Doctors of the Civil Law, and eleven of them do sit in the Chancery, or in the Rolls as Assistants, saith Sir Edward Coke) to the Lord Chancellor and to the Master of the Rolls, every day throughout each Term of the year, and to them are com∣mitted Interlocutory Reports, and stating of Accounts, and sometimes (by way of reference to them) they are impowr'd with a final Determination of Causes there depending.

4. These twelve have time out of mind, sat in the Lords House; yet have neither Writs nor Patents (for many Ages past) impowering them so to do; but I conceive, as the Master of the Rolls is (as is said by that Institutor) an Assistant to the Lord Chancellor, the remaining eleven may fairly be said to be Assistants both to the Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls, in all or most Matters, depending in both

or either Courts, and so Virtute Officij, they are inclusively capacitated, (by the Writs to the Lord Chancellor, or Master of the Rolls) to be Assistants to them in the Lords House, as they are in Chancery, without any particular VVrit or Patent to them.

5. Anciently this Title was higher than what Sir Edw. Coke affords them; for I find in an old Manuscript in the hands of Sir J. C. one of the Masters, (but I have not the opportunity of searching the Re∣cords therein mentioned) Intitutled, De Cancellario Angliae & ejus Cojudicibus, & de authoritate eorum, and then follows, viz. In dicta Curia Cancellarij sunt ordinati duo∣decem Cojudices, viz. Magistri sive Clerici de prima forma ad Robas, (which in the 13. Chap. I call the first Orb) pro Arduis negotis Regis & Regni, & Reipublicae expe∣diendis, (which agree verbatim (and 'tis observable) with the very words of all Writs of Summons to Parliaments) eidem Cancellario omnino assistentes & secum con∣tinuo consedentes, (which in a manner In∣titles them to sit in the Lords House with him and many other matters are mention∣ed therein, which I shall refer to my Anno∣tations, because I cannot now warrantably insert them; but I find in other Books, that anciently they had the care of in∣specting

all Writs of Summons to Parlia∣ments committed to them, which is now (as I have shewn) performed by the Clerks of the Pettibag.

6. As to the Title of Maister, (from Ma∣gister, and from Magus a Wiseman) it is as ancient as most of our borrow'd words from the Latin, and was still apply'd to Persons of Knowledge and other Abili∣ties above the Degrees of Yeomandry.

Amongst the old Romans (as may be read in Livy, Pomponius, Aurelius, and o∣thers) they had twelve great Officers, to whom that Title was given, viz. Magister Populi, or Dictator, Magister Equitum, Magistri Census, Magister in Auctionibus, Magistri Epistolarum, Magistri Memoriae, Magistri Militum, Magister Navis, Ma∣gistri Officiorum, Magistri Scriniorum, Magi∣ster Curiae, Magistri Aeris, and many more of a lesser Rank; for I speak not of Ma∣gistri Familiae or Privatae, (or as the word is vulgarly applied to its relative word Servant) but as a Title applied to Per∣sons of Eminency, for their Integrity and Learning; and of these there are also twelve sorts with us, (which are found in the Law Books) whereof the first we meet with in the Statutes, is the Master of the Mint, in 2 H. 6. c. 14. (2.) the Master of the Rolls in the first of H. 7. Cap. 20. (for

till then he was call'd Clerk of the Rolls, or Custos Archivorum, and chief Clerk of the Chancery, (of which there are twelve, as I said, since which, six chief Clerks, and a greater number of a lesser Form, are there Constituted, whereby they are di∣stinguisht from the ancient Clerks, (now the 12. Masters of Chancery) which may be accounted (the Third) sort in point of time mentioned in the Statutes; (the Fourth,) The Master of the Horse in the first of Edw. the Sixth; (the Fifth) The Master of the Postern in 2 Edw. 6. (the Sixth) The Master of the Kings Houshold in the 32 H. 8. (chang'd to the Lord Stuard of the Kings Houshold, (Charles Duke of Brandon being the first of that Title mentioned in any Statute) (the 7th.) The Master of the Court of Wards in the 33 of Hen. the 8. (now of no use) (the Eighth) The Master of the Musters, after in the 33 Eliz. called Muster Master Ge∣neral; (the 9.10.11.12.) viz. The Master of the Armory, the Master of the Kings Jewels, the Master of the Ordi∣nance, (and Master of the Kings Wardrop) are mentioned in the Statute of 39 Eliz. not but these Officers were before, but the Statutes (as I said) do not take notice of them till the times that they are quoted in the said Statutes.

7. Now as the old Romans had others which had the Titles of Magistri, viz. Ma∣gistri Ʋniversitatis vel Societatis; so we in imitation, at Cambridge have the Title of Magister fixt at the head of every Col∣lege in that University, (which is an argument of their Antiquity, of which I shall speak more) whereas Oxford hath but three which bear that Title.

8. It is also applied to the Heads of Halls of Companies in London, and other Ci∣ties; and it hath been formerly applied to all the Members of the House of Com∣mons, who were not actually Knights, or Esquires, or of higher Degrees; but in the House of Lords, I do not find it used to any, to whom Writs of Summons were sent to sit there, except to some Priors and Deacons who were sometimes called Magistri in their Writs, and others of Religious Orders, call'd also in their Writs Magistri, as also to Officers in Chan∣cery, viz. 49 Edw. 3. Magistro Thomae Yong, Officiario Curiae Cancellariae; but whether it was the same Office which is now exe∣cuted by the Masters of the Chancery, Non Constat; however they were then under the notion of Clerks in an Ecclesiastical sence; but as Writs were sent to Clerks or Ecclesiasticks, with the Title of Ma∣gister; so in Henry the Fourths time, and

not before, there were Writs sent to Laicks with that Title, and those were Persons of high Quality, viz. in the 2.3. and 6. Hen. the 4th. Magistro Thomae de la Ware, (sometimes call'd Ware and Warre) to attend those Parliaments, and the same Thomas was also Summon'd to the Parliaments of the 1.2.3.4.5.7.8. and and 9. of Hen. the 5th. Magistro Tho. de la Ware, and so to the 1.2. and 3. of Hen. the Sixth; but in the second Parliament of that year, Mr. De la Ware was not Summon'd, but one VVrit was Magistro Johanni Stafford Thes. Angliae, and ano∣ther VVrit, Magistro Willielmo Alremith Custod. privati Sigilli. But in the 4th. and 6. of Hen. the Sixth, both those were left out, and the same Magistro Tho. de la Ware Summond again, and for brevity passing to the 36. of Hen. the Eighth; and then it was expressly Roberto Bows Mil. Magistro sive Custod. Rotulorum Can∣cellariae, being then also chief of the twelve Masters of Chancery; However Sir Edw. Coke saith they are Assistants to the Lord Chancellor, or as the Manuscript saith, Co∣judices, and thereupon ex Officio do sit in the Lords House, and the antiquity of the Places allotted them there, (as will be shewn) and their Imployments in every Parliament makes their attendance a kind of Praescription.

And now I proceed to such as sit in the Lords House by Patent only, without Tenure, VVrit or Praescription.