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

xviii INTRODUCTION.
P. 38 Hobart) received a fee of ‘io. An iron-bound chest to contain
the patent was constructed at a cost of ‘15 4s. 8d. The patent
was then deposited in the chest, which was locked with two padlocks,
of which the treasurer of each inn held a key, and then
placed under the communion table in the Temple church. In
this safe custody it has since remained ; the chest, when necessary,
being opened only in the presence and by the keys of the two
treasurers. It was last inspected in 1896, when a facsimile reproduction
was made for the use of the two societies, a reduced copy of
which is given in this volume. The grant being expressed to the
patentees, by name, their heirs and assigns, frequent assignments
from the survivors of the benchers to their then fellows became
necessary, in order to prevent the legal estate becoming by any
means vested in the heirs or assigns of some surviving bencher who
might be away from the kingdom or otherwise entirely out of
touch with the inns and their requirements. The first of these
assignments was made in 1658, the last in 1886.
In consideration of this patent, or, as our records say, " for
the purchase of the inheritance of this House " a golden cup of
great value was made for and presented to the king. It is thus
described in the paper to which I have already referred :
" In token of thankfulness for this princely donation the said two
fellowships conjoyning in one did thereupon at their mutual charges
cause to be made a stately cup of pure gold weighing 200 ounces and
one half, of the value of one thousand marks or thereabouts, the which
in all humbleness was presented to his excellent Majesty at his Court
at Whitehall in the said Ch year of his Majesty's reign over the realm
of England for a New Year's gift, by the hands of Sir Henry
Mountagu in the time of this edition, Baron Mountagu, Viscount
Mandevil and Earl of Manchester2 and of Richard Daston Esqre
and other eminent persons of both those Hon' Societies, the which
it pleased his Matie most gratiously to accept and receive. The
This chest was mended the next year, 161o, at a cost for the joiner and smith
of four shillings. An etching of the chest, now under the communion table in the
church, is given at p. 13 of the first volume of these Records.
= Sir Henry Montagu, who appears to have been living when this paper was
written, was created Baron and Viscount in 1620, and Earl of Manchester in 1626.
He died in 1642. The " time of this edition " therefore fixes the date of the MS.
as between 1626 and 1642.