Within the liberties
Serjeants' inn in Fleet Street, Serjeants' inn in Chancery lane; for judges and sergeants only.
The Inner temple, the Middle temple, in Fleet street; houses of court.
Clifford's inn in Fleet street, Thavies inn in Oldborne, Furnival's inn in Oldborne, Barnard's inn in Oldborne, Staple inn in Oldborne; houses of Chancery.
Without the liberties
Gray's inn in Oldborne, Lincoln's inn in Chancery lane bythe old Temple;[1] houses of court.
Clement's inn, New inn, Lion's inn; houses of Chancery, without Temple bar, in the liberty of Westminster.
There was sometime an inn of sergeants in Oldborne, as you may read of Scrop's inn over against St. Andrew's church.
There was also one other inn of Chancery, called Chester's inn, for the nearness of the Bishop of Chester's house, but more commonly termed Strand inn, for that it stood in Strand street, and near unto Strand bridge without Temple bar, in the liberty of the duchy of Lancaster. This inn of Chancery, with other houses near adjoining, were pulled down in the reign of Edward VI. by Edward Duke of Sommerset, who in place thereof raised that large and beautiful house, but yet unfinished, called Sommerset house.
There was moreover, in the reign of King Henry I., a tenth house of Chancery, mentioned by Justice Fortescue in his book of the laws of England, but where it stood, or when it was abandoned, I cannot find, and therefore I will leave it, and return to the rest.
The houses of court be replenished partly with young students, and partly with graduates and practisers of the law; but the inns of Chancery being, as it were, provinces, severally subjected to the inns of court, be chiefly furnished with officers, attorneys, solicitors, and clerks, that follow the courts of the King's Bench or Common Pleas; and yet there want not some other being young students, that come thither sometimes from one of the Universities, and sometimes immediately from grammar schools; and these having spent some time in studying upon the first elements and grounds of the law, and having
- ↑ "In Oldborne." — 1st edition.
