LAWYERS
See Also: COURTS; CRIME; THE GREY STATE Solicitors; SIR THOMAS MORE; MENU
Barristers
Rumpole
of The Bailey
Rumpole
of The Bailey was based principally upon James Birch. Some elements came from Jeremy Hutchinson who
had been a pupil of Birch and was a great friend of John Mortimer, Rumpole s
creator.
Sir Edward Coke
The
most famous lawyer to emerge from the Inner Temple was Sir Edward Coke
(1552-1634), the rather staid contemporary antithesis to Sir Francis Bacon
(1561-1626). Coke helped develop the
judiciary's independence of the Crown by opposing royal policy whenever it was
not good in law. In 1628 his researches
led him to promote the Petition of Rights, which sought to give Magna Carta a
central position in the English constitution.
Coke's Four
Institutes (1628-44) were the earliest textbooks on early modern Common
Law.
It was
Coke who stated that "a man's house is his castle".
Location:
Inner
Temple, Crown Office Row, EC4Y 7HL (orange, red)
Fetter Lane
The
fetter part of Fetter Lane's name probably derives from an old French word
for a lawyer - faitor. (By the 16thC
it was renowned for its pawnbrokers.
Location:
Fetter
Lane, EC4A 1BX (orange, yellow)
Gray's Inn
The
Honourable Society of Gray's Inn is an Inn of Court. Sir Reginald de Grey (d.1308) held the
offices of Chief Justice of Chester and Constable & Sheriff of
Nottingham. He owned the Manor of
Purpoole to the west of the City of London.
In 1370 the manor house was described as a hospitium (hostel). The earliest record of Gray's Inn dates from
1569.
Grays
Inn was fed students by Barnards Inn and Staples Inn
Location:
Treasury Office, 8 South Street, Gray's Inn, WC1R 5ET (purple, yellow)
Website:
www.graysinn.org.uk
The Inner Temple and The Middle Temple
The
Inner Temple and the Middle Temple are Inns of Court. The Temple refers to the crusading Order of
the Knights Templar, which was dissolved in 1312 (in a particularly unsavoury
instance of Anglo-French co-operation).
The Inner of the Inner Temple refers to its geographical relationship
to the City of London, it being nearer to the City than the Middle Temple
was. (There was an Outer Temple that was
developed for other uses before the end of the 16thC. Essex Street now stands upon what was its
site.)
In the
mid-14thC another Order, the Knights Hospitallers, leased the
property to some practitioners of Common Law before themselves being suppressed
by King Henry VIII in 1539 as part of the Reformation.
In 1609
King James I granted the Temple to the Benchers of the two Inns on condition
that they maintain in perpetuity both the Temple Church and the house of the
Master (the church's incumbent).
Training
exercises for barristers that the Middle Temple have included the trial of the
Three Bears. In one instance the former
Attorney-General Lord Mayhew (1929-2016) ad-libbed evidence as
Goldilocks in the witness box.
Location:
Inner
Temple Lane, EC4Y 1AF. Between Nos. 16 and 17 Fleet Street, EC4Y
1AU. This leads to both the Inner Temple
and the Middle Temple. There is a map of
the two Temples on the eastern side of the archway. (orange, brown)
See
Also: CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES The Temple Church
Website:
www.innertemple.org.uk www.middletemple.org.uk
Miranda
When
the Labour politician Tony Blair was a barrister his nickname in Chambers was
Miranda, a reference to William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
Location:
11 King s
Bench Walk Chambers, Inner Temple, EC4Y 7EL (orange, yellow)
Intellectual Property
The
patent attorney Norman Waddleton (1916-2008), who was the managing partner of
Marks & Clerk, may have coined the modern usage of the term intellectual
property .
Location:
15 Fetter
Lane, EC4A 1BW (orange, red)
Website:
www.marks-clerk.com
Lincoln's Inn
The
Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is a community of barristers. The Inn probably derived its name from Henry
de Lacy 3rd Earl of Lincoln (d.1311). His lordship is said to have had a particular
interest in legal matters and was often called upon by King Edward I to give
his counsel. Lawyers are meant to have
been living upon part of the site since the end of the 13thC. The first reference to the Inn dates from
1422, which was 80 years before any mention of any of the other inns. The Society of Lincoln's Inn did not own the
site's freehold until the late 16thC.
Location:
Lincoln's Inn, WC2A 3TL (red, blue)
See
Also: DEVELOPMENTS Dr Nicholas Barbon; DEVELOPMENTS Lincoln's Inn Fields; HALLS
Website:
www.lincolnsinn.org.uk
Toasting
There
was an occasion when the barristers of Lincoln's Inn entertained King Charles
II. By the time it came to drink the
loyal toast nearly all of those present were so drunk that they were incapable
of standing. Therefore, they drank it
seated. This continued to the Inn s
practice.
The
members of Lincoln's Inn have the privilege of toasting the monarch while
seated.
David
Backhouse 2024