Survey of London (1633): Houses of Students of the Common Law

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Houses of Students in the Common Law.
BVt beside all this,
An Vni
versity of Students in and a
bout this Citie.
there is
in and about this Citie, a
whole Vniversitie, as it
were, of Students, pra
ctisers
or pleaders, and
Iudges of the Lawes of this Realme, not
living of common stipends, as in other
Vniversities it is for the most part done,
but of their owne private maintenance,
as being altogether fed, either by their
places, or practice, or otherwise by their
proper Revenues,
Houses of Students of the Cō
mon Law, & Iudges.
or exhibition of pa
rents
and friends: for that the yonger
sort are either Gentlemen or the sonnes
of Gentlemen, or of other most wealthy
persons. Of these Houses there bee at
this day foureteene in all, whereof nine
doe stand within the Liberties of this
Citie, and five in the Suburbs there
of:
VIZ.

Within the
Liberties.

Of every of these Innes, ye may reade more in their seve
rall places where the stand

For Iudges and Sergeants onely.

In Fleetstreet, Houses of Court.

Houses of Chancerie.

Without the
Liberties.

Houses of Court.

Houses of Chancerie without Temple barre,
in the liberty of Westminster.

There was sometime an Inne of Ser
geants in Oldborne,
A Serge
ants Inne in Oldborne
as ye may reade of
Scroopes Inne, over against Saint An
drews
Church
.
There was also one other Inne of Chan
cerie
,
Chesters Inne, or Strand Inne, in place whereas standeth Sommerset House.
called Chesters Inne, for the neere
nesse to the Bishop of Chesters house, but
more commonly termed Strand Inne,
for that it stood in Strand street, and
neere unto Strand bridge without Tem
ple Barre
, in the liberty of the Dutchie
of Lancaster. This Inne of Chancery, with
other houses adjoyning, were pulled
down in the reigne of Edw. the 6. by Ed
ward
Duke of Sommerset, who in place
thereof raised that large and beautifull
house, called Sommerset House.
There was moreover, in the reigne of
Of Orders and Customes.

King Henry the sixth, a tenth House of
Chancery, mentioned by Iustice Forte
scue
, in his booke of the Lawes of Eng
land
: but where it stood, or when it
was abandoned, I cannot find, and ther
fore I will leave it, and returne to the
rest.
The Houses of Court be replenished,
Houses of Court, what they be.

partly with yong students, and partly
with Graduates and practisers of the
Law: but the Innes of Chancerie, being
(as it were) provinces, severally subje
cted to the Innes of Court, bee chiefly
furnished with Officers, Atturneys, Sol
liciters and Clerkes, that follow the
Courts of the Kings Bench, or Com
mon Pleas. And yet there want not
some other, being young students, that
come thither sometimes from one of
the Vniversities,
Some students cō
ming from the Vni
versities.
and sometimes imme
diately from Grammer Schooles, and
these having spent some time in study
ing upon the grounds of the Law, and
having performed the exercises of their
owne houses, (called Boltas Mootes, and
putting of cases) they proceed to be ad
mitted, and become students in some of
these foure houses or Innes of Court,
where continuing by the space of seven
yeeres, or thereabouts, they frequent
Readings, Meetings, Boltings, and o
ther learned exercises, whereby grow
ing ripe in the knowledge of the Lawes,
and approved withall,
The pre
ferment of students according to their deserving.
to bee of honest
conversation, they are either by the ge
nerall consent of the Benchers, or Rea
ders, (being of the most ancient, grave,
and judiciall men of every Inne of the
Court
, or by speciall priviledge of the
present Reader there, selected and cal
led to the degree of Vtter Barristers, and
so enabled to be common Counsellors.
and to practise the Law, both in their
Chambers, and at the Barres.
Of these, after that they be called to a
further step of preferment, called the
Bench, there are two (every yeere) cho
sen among the Benchers of every Inne
of Court
,
Readers in every Inne of Court.
to be Readers there, who doe
make their Readings at two times of
the yeere also: that is, one in Lent, and
the other in the beginning of August.
And for the helpe of yong Students
in every one of the Innes of Chancerie,
they doe likewise choose out of every
one Inne of Court a Reader, being no
Bencher, but an Vtter Barrister there, in
tenne or twelve yeeres continuance, and
of good profit in studie. Now from
these of the said degree of Counsel
lours, or Vtter Barristers, having conti
nued therein the space of foureteene or
fifteene yeeres at the least, the chiefest
and best learned are (by the Benchers)
elected to increase the number, as I said,
of the Bench amongst them; and so in
their time doe become, first single, and
then double Readers, to the students of
those houses of Court.
After which last Reading, they bee
named Apprentices at the Law,
Apprenti
ses at Law.
and in
default of a sufficient number of Serje
ants at Law, these are, at the pleasure
of the Prince, to bee advanced to the
places of Serjeants.
Out of which number of Serjeants
also,
Serjeants & Iudges.
the void places of Iudges are like
wise ordinarily filled, albeit (now and
then) some be advanced by the speciall
favour of the Prince, to the estate, dig
nity, and place both of Serjeant and
Iudge, as it were in one instant. But
from thence-forth, they hold not any
roome in those Innes of Court, by being
translated to one of the said two Innes,
called Serjeants Innes, where none
but the Serjeants and Iudges doe con
verse.