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Retained Legal Counsel, c. 1275–c. 1475* (The Alexander Prize Essay)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Nigel Ramsay
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Extract

This paper is concerned with one aspect of the history of the English legal profession—the annual payment of sums of money to lawyers by institutions and private individuals in medieval England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 35 , December 1985 , pp. 95 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1985

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References

1 Two Cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney, ed. Bates, E. H. (Somerset Record Society, vol. 14, 1899), 152Google Scholar. Beauchamp was sheriff in 1162–3 (or possibly 1161–2), and again in 1175–85: Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Proceedings, vol. 106, 1962Google Scholar, supplement, 5.

2 For suggestions as to why central financial accounts were kept from about the 1280s in various religious houses, see, for instance, Aelred Watkin's introduction to his edition of a Cathedral, Winchester Priory receiver's roll of 1280–1, EHR, lxi (1946), 89–105, at 89–90Google Scholar.

3 Sayles, G.O., ‘Medieval Judges as Legal Consultants’, Law Quarterly Review, 56 (1940), 247–54; reprinted in H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, The English Parliament in the Middle Ages (1981)Google Scholar; Maddicott, J. R., Law and Lordship: Royal Justices as Retainers in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth Century England (Past & Present, Supplement 4, 1978)Google Scholar.

4 For example, in 1285 Bogo de Clare gave silver-gilt cups to three judges, one of whom, Sir John de Metingham, was not found guilty of any corruption in the investigations of 1289–90: ‘The Wardrobe and Household Accounts of Bogo de Clare, A. D. 1284–6’, ed. Giuseppi, M. S., Archaeologia, 70, 1918–20 (1920), 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 As Serjeants at law—servants only of the law—they regained the term in the fourteenth century.

6 See, for instance, Sayers, J. E., Papal Judges Delegate in the Province of Canterbury, 1198–1254. A Study in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Administration (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar and Select Cases from the Ecclesiastical Courts of the Province of Canterbury, eds Adams, N. and Donahue, C. jr, (Selden Society vol 95, 1978–9 (1981))Google Scholar.

7 Post, G., Giocarinis, K. and Kay, R., ‘The Medieval Heritage of a Humanistic Ideal: Scientia donum Dei est, unde vendi non potest’, Traditio, xi (1955), 195–234CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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11 Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle, ed. Clark, J. W. (Cambridge, 1907, 185–7Google Scholar; see also Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 (Cambridge, 1963), 243Google Scholar.

12 de Wigornia, Annales Prioratus, in Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, H. R., vol. iv (Rolls Series, 1869), 440, 447Google Scholar.

13 Emden, , B.R.U.O, iii. 2168Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., 1447.

15 Ibid., ii. 1330.

16 Denholm-Young, N., Seignorial Administration in England (1937), 28Google Scholar.

17 Early Compotus Rolls (1278–1352) of the Priory of Worcester, eds Wilson, J. M. and Gordon, C. (Worcestershire Historical Society, 1908), 12, 13, 18, 29Google Scholar; and Emden, , B.R.U.O., ii. 1172Google Scholar (Walter de Ludeford), 1174 (Thomas de Lugoure, D.C.L.), and Hi. 1465 (Peter de Periton, later D.Cn.L.).

18 Early Compotus Rolls, ed. Wilson, and Gordon, , 36–7Google Scholar.

19 Account of the Executors of Richard, Bishop of London, 1303…, eds Hale, W. H. and Ellacombe, H.T. (Camden Society, N.S. 10, 1874), 107Google Scholar.

20 For Gilbert de Middleton's fees, see Emden, , B.R.U.O., ii. 1275Google Scholar; he also received fees of five marks a year from Bishop Walter de Stapledon and Worcester Cathedral Priory. The latter fee was to be paid until he was presented to a benefice, and the two episcopal fees were to be paid until he was given a prebend: the retention of quite a few canon lawyers must be masked as a result of such forms of remuneration, although monetary fees seem to have been much more common.

21 Smith, R. A. L., Canterbury Cathedral Priory. A Study in Monastic Administration (Cambridge, 1943), 71Google Scholar.

22 Public Record Office, Ministers' Accounts, SC 6/1257/12. Wayland's clerk is named as Robert of Littlebury. The disgraced Richard de Boyland, whose association with Norwich Cathedral Priory went back to at least 1264–5, continued to receive an annual fee of 20s. from the Priory after his dismissal from the bench, until at least 1292–3 and perhaps until his death: Norfolk Record Office, Norwich Cathedral archives, accounts of the prior's camera.

23 See the discussion of attorneys in Meier, J. C., ‘The Beginnings of Professionalism among English Attorneys, 1266–1300’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Iowa, 1977Google Scholar, especially at 48ff. At p. 52 she points out that of the 43 narrators known from final concords in the Michaelmas terms of 1294, 1296 and 1300, 23 had earlier appeared as attorneys, and she establishes that 15 of these may be termed professional attorneys by virtue of the frequency of their appearance on the membranes recording attorneys' warrants.

24 Account of the Executors, eds Hale, and Ellacombe, , 107Google Scholar.

25 Denholm-Young, Seignorial Administration, 42; the date of 1307–8 is suggested by Holmes, G. A., The Estates of the Higher Nobility in Fourteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1957), 74n.gGoogle Scholar.

26 PRO, SC 6/1132/10, mm.4 and 15a; I have included 26s. 8d. for the attorney's robe in the sum.

27 PRO, SC 6/1132/12.

28 Fowler, G. H., Rolls from the Office of the Sheriff of Beds, and Bucks., 1332–1334 (Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, Quarto Memoirs, iii, 1929), 79Google Scholar.

29 Lincoln, Dean & Chapter Muniments, Bj. 2. 5, fo. 22v. For Broclesby, see Emden, , B.R.U.O., i. 273–4Google Scholar. His father was Robert of Welton; he was made a Baron of the Exchequer in 1341, in succession to Robert of Nottingham, whose personal clerk he had previously been: Tout, T. F., The Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History, 2nd edn., by Johnstone, Hilda (Manchester, 1936), 309Google Scholar n. 1. No subsequent attorney employed by the Chapter was ever a magister.

30 Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Miscellaneous Accounts, 2 (Treasurer's Accounts, 1307–84), f. 157 (John Evere; Exchequer), f. 193 (William de Waldegrave; King's Bench); DE. 3 (Day Book of Priors Oxenden and Hathbrand, 1331–43), f. 5V (Thomas Doyly; Common Pleas). Smith, , Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 75Google Scholar, is inaccurate.

31 Roberts, A. K. B., St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, 1348–1416. A Study in Early Collegiate Administration (Windsor, n.d. [1947]), 146, 147Google Scholar.

32 Summarised in Records of the City of Norwich, ed. Hudson, W. and Tingey, J.C., 2 vols. (Norwich, 1906–1910), ii. 31–2Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., 31–4.

34 Exeter City Archives, Receivers' Account Rolls.

35 Year Books of Edward II. Vol. XV. 6 & 7 Edward II. A.D. 1313, ed. Bolland, W. C. (Selden Society, vol. 36, 1918), 120Google Scholar.

36 Exeter Archives, Receivers' Rolls.

37 The Chapter of Lincoln retained John de Thorp as their attorney in the Guildhall at Lincoln from 1331–2 to at least 1339–40, at 6s. 8d. a year; he was the only attorney they ever retained on a yearly basis in this court. Lincoln, Dean & Chapter Muniments, Bj. 2. 5, ff. 127v, 180v.

38 See, for example, the discussion by Curtis, M. E., Some Disputes between the City and the Cathedral Authorities of Exeter (Manchester, 1932)Google Scholar.

39 That the Serjeants at law were originally simply the body of narrators who pleaded in the court of Common Pleas is suggested by Baker, J. H., The Order of Serjeants at Law (Selden Society, Supplementary Series, vol. 5, 1984), 4–7Google Scholar.

40 year Books of Edward II. Vol. III. A.D. 1309–10, ed. Maitland, F.W. (Selden Society, vol. 20, 1905), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

41 Such commissions, where written on the dorses of the patent rolls, have only recently been calendared at the Public Record Office, under the guidance of the late Meekings, C. A. F.: Calendar of the General and Special Assize & General Gaol Delivery Commissions on the Dorses of the Patent Rolls … (1377–1399) (Nendeln, Liechtenstein, 1977)Google Scholar.

42 All the material in this paragraph comes from the annual Bursars' Rolls of Durham Cathedral Priory, in the Durham Dean & Chapter Muniments.

43 Moubray continued to be feed until c. 1373, about the time of his death.

44 Apprentices (at law) took their names from the fact that in the fourteenth century they were deemed to be at the learning stage of their career; there is no evidence to suggest that they were ever articled to anyone.

45 Westminster Abbey Muniments, no. 6036, m. 6. In 1378 the Corporation of London felt it necessary to pay the Recorder of London (who at this time was always an apprentice) an extra £13 or £14 a year in return for foregoing fees and robes from other clients.

46 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1396–9, 28.

47 PRO, DL 28/3/5, f. Io; Hull Chamberlains' accounts, BRF 2/344 ex inf. Dr R. Horrox; British Library, Additional Charter 16556. These are accounts for 1396–7, 1406–7 and Easter term 1403.

48 York, Dean & Chapter Muniments, Chamberlains' Accounts; Chronica Monastem de Melsa, ed. Bond, E. A., vol. iii (Rolls Series, 1868), p. lxviiGoogle Scholar; Westminster Diocesan Archives, Se/Ac/5. These are accounts for 1402–3 onwards, 1396 and 1398–9.

49 Rigby, S. H., ‘Boston and Grimsby in the Middle Ages’, London Ph.D. thesis, 1983, p. 80Google Scholar; Lincoln, D & C Muniments, Bj. 2. 8, f. 118, etc. These are payments made from 1394 5 and from 1395–6 onwards.

50 William Ayscogh, as a Justice of the Common Pleas and thus as a recipient of a salary of at least £120, petitioned in 1441 asking for a grant on the grounds that he had only been a Serjeant for less than two years and, by implication, had lost by his speedy promotion to the Bench the greater winnings and fees that he would have had as a Serjeant. Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench, under Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, Vol. VII, ed. Sayles, G. O. (Selden Society, vol. 88, 1971), p. xvGoogle Scholar; Lysons, S., ‘Copies of Three Remarkable Petitions to King Henry the Sixth …’, Archaeologia, 16 (1812), 4Google Scholar.

51 Exeter Archives, Receivers' Rolls. The next two years' rolls do in fact show Fortescue as accepting 13s. 4d. once more, but in 1440–1 (by when he was a Serjeant) the sum was increased to £2.

52 Baldwin, J. F., The King's Council in England during the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1913), 104Google Scholar.

53 Ibid.; also influential were two papers by Levett, A. E.: ‘The Courts and Court Rolls of St Albans Abbey’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser., vol. 7 (1924), 52–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and ‘Baronial Councils and their Relations to Manorial Courts’, Mélanges d'Histoire du Moyen Age, offerts à M. Ferdinand Lot … (Paris, 1925)Google Scholar, reprinted in Studies in Manorial History, by A. E. Levett (Oxford, 1938),21–40.

54 Baldwin, , The King's Council, 354–8Google Scholar. Cf. Brown, A. L. ‘The King's Councillors in Fifteenth-Century England’, TRHS, 5th ser., vol. 19 (1969), 95–118Google Scholar.

55 Ibid., 142, and cf. 166, 205 and 207.

56 Cf. Holmes, . Estates of the Higher Mobility, 76–7Google Scholar, for the later fourteenth century: ‘Apart from the councils of the king and queen, the only lay councils which have been, and perhaps the only ones which can be, satisfactorily examined are those of the Black Prince and of the Duke of Lancaster’.

57 See, for instance, Somerville, R., History of the Ducky of Lancaster, vol. i, 1265–1603 (1953), 128–9Google Scholar.

58 E.g., Somerville, R., ‘The Duchy of Lancaster Council and Court of Duchy Chamber’, TRHS, 4th ser., vol. 23 (1941), 159–77, at 170Google Scholar; and Rawcliffe, C., ‘Baronial Councils in the Later Middle Ages’, Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, ed. Ross, C. D. (Gloucester, 1979), 87–108, at 90Google Scholar.

59 The closest that the accounts get to this is the phrase ‘ad essendum de consilio’; e.g. British Library, Egerton Roll 8742 recto (accounts of Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, 1394).

60 Year Book report, Hil. 21 Edward III, 7, pl. 20; cf. Baker, J. H., ‘Counsellors and Barristers. An Historical Study’, Cambridge Law Journal, 27 (1969), 205–29, at 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Jack, R. I., ‘Entail and Descent: the Hastings Inheritance, 1370–1436’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 38 (1965), 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 PRO, DL 28/3/3, m. 6; 28/3/4 (i). For the lawsuit, see Somerville, , Duchy of Lancaster, i. 68 n.6Google Scholar.

63 PRO, DL 28/3/4 (i).

64 Ibid., s.v. Feoda for Woderove. Englys and Hervy may perhaps be identified with the Engleys and Herny who were stewards of the lordship of Higham Ferrers, in office by 1391; Somerville, , Duchy of Lancaster, i. 371Google Scholar.

65 PRO, DL 28/3/4 (i).

66 Lincoln, D & C Muniments, Bj. 2. 7, ff. 27V, 28, 29.

67 Ibid., f. 69V.

68 The 1346 ordinance forbidding royal judges to accept fees or robes (Statutes of the Realm, i (Record Commission, 1810), 303–6)Google Scholar applied equally to Barons of the Exchequer.

69 Such suggestions partly represent a building up on the foundations provided by Levett, ‘Baronial Councils …’ in her Studies in Manorial History. See also Post, J. B., ‘Courts, Councils and Arbitrators in the Ladbroke Manor Dispute, 1382–1400’, Medieval Legal Records edited in Memory of C. A. F. Meekings, eds Post, J. B. and Hunnisett, R. F. (1978), 290–339Google Scholar.

70 Stat. 16 Richard II, c. 2; Statutes of the Realm, ii. 83.

71 For such a reference to a solicitor, Robert Pert, as counsel to the abbot of Winchcombe, see PRO, Early Chancery Proceedings, Ci/32/60.

72 For a discussion of one late fifteenth-century attorney-general and his relations with the feudal magnate who took up most of his time, see Ives, E. W., ‘Andrew Dymmock and the Papers of Antony, Earl Rivers, 1482–3’, BIHR, 41 (1968), 216–29Google Scholar.

73 C[hitty, H.], ‘Lawyers employed by Winchester College during the Fifteenth Century’, Notes and Queries, 12th series, i (1916), 361–3, at 362, no. 22Google Scholar.

74 Exeter Archives, Receivers' Rolls.

75 For non-monetary ‘good lordship’, see Dunham, W. H. jr, ‘Lord Hastings’ Indentured Retainers, 1461–83 …’, Transactions, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 39 (1955). 1–175Google Scholar.

76 Pecock, Reginald, The Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy, ed. Babington, C. (Rolls Series, 1860), ii. 370–1Google Scholar.