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

lxxii INTRODUCTION.
each November by members of the inn, followed by a supper, was
probably the same as that adopted in the exchequer. Several successive
cursitor barons, and many of the officers of the exchequer,
were members and benchers of the inn, and well acquainted with
the practice.' Whatever may have been the amount which the society
had in hand, it was not long before the king proceeded to make
a claim upon it. I have not found among our own records any
entries either of the demand for, or of contributions towards, the loan
which the king started in the autumn of 1625, after his failure to
obtain the required monies either from the house of commons or
from the mortgage of the crown jewels. There is, however, among
the state papers a document which should be with us. It is a letter
dated 26th November, 1626, from the council to the benchers of the
Inner Temple.' It recites that in Kent, Middlesex, Essex, and
Hertford, the loan had so far proceeded that the monies were ready
to be paid, and that upon his majesty's pleasure letters had been sent
to the inns of court.
" We therefore hereby pray and require your . . . . society of the Inner
Temple (who as we understand have begun well) to proceed effectually in the
expediting of this service. And that you cause the monies to be brcught into
Mr. Pitts his office of receipt in the exchequer to be there paid to Thomas
Parramor Esquire, appointed collector for the said Loan, who upon receipt
thereof shall cause a Tallie to be stroken for your discharge on that behalf.
Hereof his Majesty and this Board expects a tymelie and reall account from
you. . . . From Whitehall ye 26th of November 1626."
It may well have been that the benchers as a body declined to
recognize the king's demand, while certain of them, either looking
forward to promotion, or desiring to gratify the king's wishes, voluntarily
subscribed towards his " necessities," without pledging themselves
to the legality of the procedure. A similar course was pursued
in 1639, when the king before starting for Scotland to engage the
Scottish army under Leslie, made a demand for contributions towards
the cost of the expedition. In a return of the sums received upon
' An explanation of this mode of procedure may be found in " History and
Antiquities of the Exchequer of the Kings of England." Thomas Madox, London, 1708,
cap. xxiii., ss. 24-29, vol. 2, p. 251. " The Antiquities and Curiosities of the Exchequer."
Hubert Hall, F.S.A., London, 1891, p. 114. Purchases of counters
for the audit are noted from time to time (e.g.) pp. 247, 252.
' " State Papers, Domestic, Car. I.," vol. xl., No. 27. See Appendix p. 352.