now known as the Middle Temple.

There is a tradition that the students of the Inner Temple came from
Davy's Inn, which could hardly have existed at that time under that
name, but it may be noted that in the records of that Inn it is stated,
under date of 1525, that "Master Barnardston is pardoned the office of
Steward because he executed the office of Principal of Davy's Inn at the
instance of this Society,"[120] thus showing that this Inn of Court had
the right in that year of supplying one of its own members to that
office.

In 1521 the Prior of St. John's made complaint that the Society of the
Inner Temple was occupying his lands against his will; but at the
dissolution of the religious houses in 1541, the rentals became due to
the Crown; and James I., in his sixth year, granted the property to the
Benchers of the Middle and Inner Temples in perpetuity for a fixed
rental of L20,[121] their several moieties of which Charles II. allowed
them to purchase in 1673 and 1675 respectively.[122]

The "round" of the church was completed in 1185, the choir in 1240, and
the whole building was "restored" in 1842 at a cost of L70,000. The hall
of the Middle Temple was built in 1572, that of the Inner Temple in
1870.

The property on the west side of New Street, or Chancery Lane, had been
granted to, or acquired by, the Knights Templars. Henry III.'s
Chancellor, Ralph Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, died at his house there
in 1244, and the King arbitrarily authorised his Treasurer, William de
Haverhill, to secure the property upon the Chancellor's death, so that
neither the Templars nor any other person should lay hands on it.[123]
To the north of it was a garden once held by William Cottrell, which he
had given to the Knights of St. John, who in turn had given it to St.
Giles' Hospital for Lepers.[124] In the year 1310, when Henry de Lacy,
Earl of Lincoln, died, another Bishop of Chichester, John de Langton,
was Chancellor, and was occupying the Inn of the see, whilst the
hospital of St. Giles was still receiving rent for Cottrell's garden. No
Black Friars house, therefore, ever existed here, nor did Henry de Lacy
die here; and all traditions to the contrary can be disproved.

In 1422 the Society of Lincoln's Inn, coming probably from Holborn, took
a lease of the Bishop of Chichester's property, and afterwards a lease
of Cottrell's garden. In 1537 Bishop Sampson sold the house and land
belonging to the see to William and Eusta