n olden time a retaining fee was merely part
(surrendered in advance) of a certain sum stipulated to be paid for
certain services. In principle it was identical with the payment of the
shilling, still given in rural districts, to domestic servants on an
agreement for service, and with the transfer of the queen's shilling
given to every soldier on enlistment. There is no need to mention the
classic origin of this ancient mode of giving force to a contract.

From the 'Household and Privy Purse Expenses of the Le Stranges of
Hunstanton,' published in the Archaeologia, may be gleamed some
interesting particulars relating to the payment of counsel in the reign
of Henry VIII. In 1520, Mr. Cristofer Jenney received from the Le
Stranges a half-yearly fee of ten shillings; and this general retainer
was continued on the same terms till 1527, when the fee was raised from
L1 per annum to a yearly payment of L2 13_s._ 4_d._ To Mr. Knightley was
paid the sum of 8_s._ 11_d._ "for his fee, and that money yt he layde
oute for suying of Simon Holden;" and the same lawyer also received at
another time 14_s._ 3_d._ "for his fee and cost of sute for iii termes."
A fee of 6_s._ 8_d._ was paid to "Mr. Spelman, s'jeant, for his counsell
in makyng my answer in ye Duchy Cham.;" and the same serjeant received
a fee of 3_s._ 4_d._ "for his counsell in putting in of the answer."
Fees of 3_s._ 4_d._ were in like manner given "for counsell" to Mr.
Knightley and Mr. Whyte; and in 1534, Mr. Yelverton was remunerated "for
his counsell" with the unusually liberal honorarium of twenty shillings.
From the household book of the Earl of Northumberland, it appears that
order was made, in this same reign, for "every oone of my lordes
counsaill to have c's. fees, if he have it in household and not by
patent." After the earl's establishment was reduced to forty-two
persons, it still retained "one of my lordes counsaill for annswering
and riddying of causes, whenne sutors cometh to my lord." At a time when
every lord was required to administer justice to his tenants and the
inferior people of his territory, a counsellor learned in the law, was
an important and most necessary officer in a grand seigneur's retinue.

Whilst Sir Thomas More lived in Bucklersbury, he "gained, without grief,
not so little as L400 by the year." This income doubtless accrued from
the emoluments of his judicial appointment in the City, as well as from
his practice at Westminster and elsew