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

lxxviii INTRODUCTION.
p. 196 In June, 1632, the bar, acting under some supposed customary right
of governing the inn during vacation, suspended William Browne. a
barrister, for not keeping the exercises of the house in the Lent
vacation. He appealed to the bench by whom it was held that the bar
p• 200
had no such power, and that the suspension was void. In 1632, the
chambers of Edward Thornton were forfeited by reason of his having
lodged two bankrupt merchants contrary to the orders of the house.
p. 223 In 1635, and again in 1639, the orders passed in each successive
P• 249 reign against members of the inn being attornies or solicitors were
p. 222 renewed and enforced. In 1635, the bench ordered that for the
future the letting of shops in the Temple should be restricted to
267 booksellers, stationers, parchment dealers, and the like. In 1642,
the bond to be given by each member on his call to the bar was
raised from ,4-30 to Z50. In the course of this reign also an order
was promulgated regulating the costumes of the judges and serjeants.
It is set out in detail in Dugdale's " Origines," and is the rule by
which the judges of the high court are still guided in the choice of
p. 252 robes to be worn on special occasions.' In 1639, two gold cups were
given, one to the attorney-general, Sir John Banks, and one to the
attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster, at a cost of I 4s. od.
Vol. i., p. 311 Trouble had arisen so far back as 1580 about the keeping of
Christmas commons. These were, by the antient custom of the inn,
placed under the management of the gentlemen who were not yet
called to the degree of barrister-at-law. They elected their officers,
did their own catering, kept (somewhat irregularly) their own accounts,
and gave their own entertainments, to which they invited
their own guests. The benchers, however, never surrendered their
general right of control over the whole inn and all its members, and
conflicts thus arose between the hot-headed juniors and the staid and
elderly seniors, which, with the approaching disorders of the time,
p. 173 soon grew to a head. In November, 1628, orders, confirmatory of
former orders, declared that Christmas commons should only continue
for three weeks ; that no stranger should be admitted to commons ;
that there should be no drinking of heal ths, and no attendants except
officers of the house ; and that no dice or other play should be permitted
after midnight on Saturday or Christmas Eve. There was
pp.191,192, much difficulty in enforcing these orders, and various committees
1 94, 195
' Dugdale. " Originec," p. TOI.