Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

cviii INTRODUCTION.
constituted in the inn, and no one was called to the bench or to the
bar, although the admission of members still continued.1 During
the period " of these unnatural wars " no rent was paid to the
274 exchequer, no salary to any master of the Temple, and there were
P. 277
p.
no commons in the house. No treasurer was elected, and no
accounts were audited. The business of the inn was transacted by
Nicholas Cholmley, who continued his former office of treasurer, and
by the chief butler, who received no salary, and no discharge for his
receipts and payments until 1645. Owing to the dispersal of the
fellows, the inn was left to the mercy of the few who remained, and
it became for a time the home of strangers, who occupied sequestered
chambers and were sometimes buried in the church, and of families
who took refuge within its walls, and were removed with great
p. 306 difficulty during the interregnum. The buildings were left unprotected,
and in 1643-44 a great part of the gold and silver plate of
the inn was stolen and never recovered. When in 1644-45 public
tranquillity was somewhat restored, the ordinary business of the inn
was resumed, and was carried on without further interruption. As
in the days before the flood, men pursued their ordinary occupations,
but with a serious quietness which recognized a time of danger and
of tribulation. Students were admitted, though the numbers were
not so large as in peaceful times. Fellows were called to the bar and
to the bench—but the readings were spasmodic, and ceased altogether
p. 291 after August, 1642. Parliaments and bench-tables met as before, but
the agenda was mainly confined to the disposal of chambers, and to
auditing the accounts of the officials. Watches, however, were kept
and thus the property of the inn was to some extent protected. This
p. 284 was specially so in the summer and autumn of 1648, when the house
was, not unreasonably, believed to be in danger.
For the administration of justice our inn was divided. Justices
Rolle and Nicholas in the King's Bench, Chief Baron Wilde and
Baron Trevor, with Tomlins, the cursitor baron appointed by the order
p. 272 of parliament,' and Prideaux, who for a time was one of the commissioners
of the great seal, sat in Westminster Hall. Sir Edward
Littleton supported the king as a colonel of horse and keeper of the
In 1641 there were thirty-five admissions ; in 1642 there were sixteen ; in 1643
there were five ; in 1644 there were twenty-six ; and in 1645 there were thirty-six.
mmons' Journals," 17 Dec., 1645, vol. iv., p. 387.
2 " Co