FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  
prohibitions and objections." With the foundation and growth of the Inns of Court, the apprentices--the better sort at least--obtained full recognition as practitioners; and at the close of the fourteenth century their reputation had become so considerable that the great apprentices had formed themselves into a distinct order, in which they stood next to serjeants-at-law, the gradation being as follows: (i) Serjeants-at-law. (ii) Nobiliores, or great apprentices. (iii) Other apprentices who followed the law. (iv) Apprentices of less estate, and attorneys. The term "apprentice-at-law" yielded to _apprenticius ad barros_, and that again to "utter-barrister," corresponding to the modern "barrister-at-law." Not all the students admitted at an inn were "called" to the bar, the truth being that only a small proportion received that distinction. In 1596 an arrangement was made by the Judges and Benchers of the four Inns of Court, by which it was agreed: "That hereafter none shall be admitted to the Barr but only such as be at the least seven years' continuance, and have kept the exercises within the House and abroad in Inns of Chancery, according to the orders of the House: "_Item_, that there be in one year only four Utter-Barristers called in any Inne of Court (that is to say) in Easter Term, two, and, in Michaelmas Term, two," etc. Again, certain orders, made for the better government of the Inns of Court and Chancery in 1624 provided that not more than eight members of any one inn should be called to the Bar in any one year, and that no Utter-Barristers, except such as had been Readers in Houses of Chancery, should begin to practise publicly at any bar at Westminster until they had been three years at the bar. As regards the Inns of Court, their precise origin cannot be clearly ascertained. We hear of them in the reign of Edward III., mention being made in the Year Book of 1354 of "les apprentices en Hostells." In the opinion of Lord Mansfield they were at the outset "voluntary societies," for they "are," he says, "not corporations and have no charter from the Crown." Serjeant Pulling holds that the smaller houses were hired by the apprentices, and then by lease or purchase possession became permanent. The greater houses, he thinks, had a similar history. This belief is borne out by what happened in the case of the Temple. In 1324, when the King granted the Knights Hospitallers the New Temple,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
apprentices
 

called

 

Chancery

 

barrister

 

houses

 
orders
 
Temple
 

Barristers

 
admitted
 

origin


precise

 

ascertained

 
members
 

government

 
provided
 

Readers

 
Westminster
 
publicly
 

Houses

 

practise


opinion

 

thinks

 

greater

 

similar

 

history

 

permanent

 

purchase

 

possession

 

belief

 

granted


Knights

 
Hospitallers
 

happened

 

smaller

 

Hostells

 
Mansfield
 

Edward

 
mention
 

outset

 
voluntary

Serjeant
 

Pulling

 
charter
 
societies
 

corporations

 

continuance

 
Serjeants
 

Nobiliores

 
gradation
 

serjeants