
Hare Court, within the Inner
Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner
Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple,
is one of the four Inns of Court
(professional associations for barristers
and judges) in London
. To
be
called to the Bar and practise
as a barrister in
England and
Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns. Located
in London, the Inn is both a
professional body for many barristers
which provides legal training, selection and regulation. It is
ruled by a governing council called "Parliament", made up of the
Masters of the Bench (or "
Benchers"), and
led by the
Treasurer,
who is elected to serve a one-year term. The Temple takes its name
from the
Knights Templar, who
originally leased the land to the inhabitants of the Temple (or
Templars) until their abolition in 1312. The Inner Temple was
certainly a distinct society from at least 1388, although as with
all the Inns of Court their precise date of founding is not known.
After a
disruptive early period (during which the Temple was almost
entirely destroyed in the Peasant's
Revolt) it flourished, becoming the second largest Inn during
the Elizabethan period (after
Gray's
Inn
).
The Inner Temple continued to expand during the reigns of
James I and
Charles I, with 1,700 students admitted
to the Inn between 1600 and 1640. The outbreak of the
First English Civil War led to a
complete suspension of legal education, with the Inns almost shut
down for almost four years. Following the
English Restoration the Inner Templars
welcomed
Charles II back to
London personally with a lavish banquet. After a period of slow
decline in the 18th century, the following 100 years saw a
restoration of the Temple's fortunes, with buildings constructed or
restored, such as the Hall and the Library.
Much of this work was
destroyed during The Blitz, where the
Hall, Temple, Temple
Church
and many sets of chambers were devastated. Rebuilding
was completed in 1959, and today the Temple is a flourishing and
active Inn of Court, with over 8,000 members.
Role
The Inner
Temple is one of the four Inns of
Court, along with Gray's
Inn
, Lincoln's
Inn
and the Middle Temple
. The Inns are responsible for training,
regulating and selecting barristers within
England and Wales, and are the only bodies
allowed to
call a barrister to the
Bar and allow him to practice. The Temple is an independent,
unincorporated organisation, and works as a
trust. It has approximately 8,000 members, with around
450 joining a year. Although the Inn was previously a disciplinary
and teaching body, these functions are now shared between the four
Inns, with the
Bar Standards
Board (a division of the
General Council of the Bar)
acting as a disciplinary body and the Inns of Court and Bar
Educational Trust providing education.
History
The Knights Templar and the founding of the Inner Temple
The
history of the Inner Temple begins in the early years of the reign
of Henry II (1154–1189), when
the contingent of Knights Templar in
London moved from the Old Temple in Holborn
to a new
location on the banks of the River
Thames, stretching from Fleet Street
to what is now Essex House
. The original Temple here covered much of what
is now Lincoln's
Inn
, and Chancery Lane
(originally New Street) was constructed by the
Knights to provide access to their new buildings. The first
group of lawyers came to live here during the 13th century,
although as legal advisers to the Knights rather than as a society.
The Knights fell out of favour, and the order was dissolved in
1312, with the land seized by the king and granted to the
Knights Hospitaller. The Hospitallers
probably did not live on the property, but rather used it as a
source of revenue through rent.
During the
12th and 13th century the law was taught in the City of London
, primarily by the clergy. During the 13th
century two events happened which destroyed this form of legal
education; first, a decree by
Henry
III of England on 2 December 1234 that no institutes of legal
education could exist in the City of London, and secondly a
papal bull of 1207 that prohibited the
clergy from teaching the
common law,
rather than
canon law. As a result the
system of legal education fell apart.
The common lawyers
migrated to the hamlet of Holborn
, as it was
easy to get to the law courts at Westminster Hall and was outside the
City. Two groups, however, instead occupied the Hospitaller
land, and became known as the "inner inn" (occupying the
consecrated buildings near the centre of the temple) and the
"middle inn" (occupying the unconsecrated buildings between the
"inner inn" and the
Outer Temple).
These
became the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple
, and were certainly distinct societies by 1388,
when they are mentioned in a year
book. The Hospitallers leased the land to the
Inner Temple for £10 a year, with students coming from Thavie's Inn
to study there.
Early years
There are few records of the Inner Temple from the 14th and 15th
centuries—indeed, from all the societies, although the records of
Lincoln's Inn stretch back to 1422. The Temple was certainly sacked
by
Wat Tyler and his rebels during the
Peasant's Revolt in 1381, with
buildings pulled down and records destroyed.
John Stow wrote that, after breaking into Fleet
Prison the rebels:
"went to the Temple to destroy it, and plucked down the
houses, tooke off the tyles of the other buildings left; went to
the churche, tooke out all the bookes and remembrances that were m
the hatches of the prentices of the law, carried them into the high
street, and there burnt them.
This house they spoyled for wrathe they bare to the
prior of St. John's, unto whom it belonged, and, after a number of
them had sacked this Temple, what with labour and what with wine
being overcome, they lay down under the walls and housing,, and
were slain like swyne, one of them killing another for old grudge
and hatred, and others also made quick dispatch of
them.
A number of them that burnt the Temple went from thence
to the Savoy, destroying in their way all the houses that belonged
to the Hospital of St. John.
John Baker thinks that
the inhabitants took the opportunity to rebuild much of the Temple,
and that this when the Temple's Hall was built, since it contained
14th century roofing that would not have been available to the
Knights Templar. The Inns of Court were similarly attacked in
Jack Cade's rebellion, although there are
no specific records showing damage to the Inner Temple.
When the Kinghts Hospitaller were dissolved in 1539, their lands
became owned by
the king, who
leased them to the Inner and Middle Temples until 1573. Following a
Scotsman's request to purchase the land, the Inner and Middle
Temples appealed to
James I, who
granted the land to a group of noted lawyers and
Benchers, including
Sir Julius Caesar and Henry Montague,
and to "their heirs and assignees for ever" on the condition that
the Inner and Middle Temples each paid him £10 a year.
Elizabethan age
The
Elizabethan age saw a large amount of rebuilding and beautification
within the Temple, and with over 100 sets of chambers it was the
second largest Inn (after Gray's Inn
), with 155 residential students reported in
1574.
In the winter of 1561, the Inner Temple was the scene of an
extraordinary set of
revels.
The revels were to
celebrate the raising of Robert Dudley as the
Temple's "Christmas Prince", a role he was granted in gratitude for
his intervention in a dispute with the Middle Temple
over Lyon's
Inn
, one of the Inns of
Chancery that had historically been tied to the Inner
Temple. Dudley's influence swayed
Elizabeth into asking
Nicholas Bacon to rule in favour
of the Inner Temple, and in gratitude the Parliament and Governors
swore never to take a case against Dudley and to offer him their
legal services whenever required. This pledge was always honoured,
and in 1576 the Inner Temple Parliament referred to Dudley as the
"chief governor of this House". The play was partially documented
by
Gerard Legh in his
Accedens of
Armory, a book of heraldry woodcuts, which described Dudley's
role as Prince Pallaphilos, the lieutenant of
Athena and Patron of the Order of the Pegasus.
Seventeenth century
The Inner Temple continued to expand during the reigns of
James I and
Charles I, with 1,700 students admitted
to the Inn between 1600 and 1640. The outbreak of the
First English Civil War led to a
complete suspension of legal education, with the Inns almost shut
down for almost four years; the Inns "suffered a mortal collapse".
Nothing was done to adapt the old system of legal education, which
was declining anyway, to the new climate of internal war. After the
end of the Civil War, the old system was not restored; Readers
refused to read and both barristers and Benchers refused to follow
the internal regulations. The last reading at Inner Temple was made
in 1678.
Following the
English
Restoration, the Inner Temple welcomed
Charles II back to London with a
lavish banquet on 15 August 1661. The banquet was hosted by
Sir Heneage Finch, the
Speaker of the
English House of Commons and was attended by the King, four
Dukes including the
Duke of
York, fourteen Earls of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 Lords
and the
Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas.
The group proceeded from Whitehall
on the King's barge, landed at the Temple and
walked through the Temple Garden surrounded by all the Benchers,
barristers and servants of the Temple, fifty of whom brought a
lavish feast for the revellers. At the start of the next
legal term, two Dukes including the Duke of York, two Earls and two
Lords were admitted as members, and the Duke of York was
called to the Bar and made an honorary
Bencher.
During the rule of the
House of
Stuart, much was done by the
Court of
Star Chamber to enforce religious edicts against Catholicism
within the Inner Temple. An order was sent directly to the Benchers
proclaiming that no "pson eyther convented or suspected for
papistrye shulde be called eyther to the benche or to the barre",
and at the same time Benchers were selected specifically because of
their Protestant beliefs, with popular and successful Catholics
held back. This period also features an example of the independent
standing of the Temple; in 1668 the Lord Mayor of London attempted
to enter the Temple with his sword, something that was his right in
the City but not permitted within the Temple. The students took his
sword and forced him to spend the night in a set of chambers; when
he escaped and tried to return, they called the
trainbands. The Mayor complained to the King, who
heard the case on 7 April 1669 and decided to allow it to be
determined by law rather than by his royal privilege; the lawyers
returned to the principle that the Temple could set its own
internal rules on the right to carry swords.
Eighteenth century to the present
The 18th century was a period of relative stability, with an
element of decline. The Benchers of the time were described as
"opposed to all modern fashions, including new-fangled comforts",
with the Inn's buildings deteriorating.Much of the Temple was
rebuilt during the 19th century, most noticeably the Hall and
Library, although fever and disease continued as a result of the
Inn's still-outdated systems; the same water was used both for
drinking and flushing the toilet, for example.
In 1922 the Temple called
Ivy Williams
to the bar, making her the first female barrister. The Temple
suffered massively during
The Blitz in the
Second World War; as well as
attacks on 19 September 1940 and 26 September, which destroyed the
Library clocktower and the Hall respectively, on 10-11 May 1941 the
Inn was hit by a series of incendiaries which destroyed the inside
of Temple Church, the Hall, the Library and many sets of chambers.
Fires continued to burn for another day, despite the assistance of
the
Fire Brigade and several barristers
and employees. A decision was made to put off rebuilding until
after the cessation of hostilities, and plans began in 1944, when
the Temple contacted the to provide the £1.5 million to cover the
damage. £1.4 million was provided, with the rest found elsewhere.
Further delays were suffered thanks to the Temple's choice of
architect,
Hubert Worthington,
who was so slow that the Benchers ended up replacing him with his
junior associate, T.W. Sutcliffe, and eventually
Edward Maufe. The chambers were the priority,
with parts of King's Bench Walk finished in 1949, and the final
building (the Library) was opened on 21 April 1958.
Structure and governance
The Temple is governed by the Parliament, an executive council made
up of the elected
Benchers. The Parliament
is led by the Treasurer, who is elected annually to serve a
one-year term; the current Treasurer is Vivian Robinson QC. The
Temple also has a Reader, who traditionally holds the position for
a year before being made the Treasurer; the current Reader is
Lord Justice Laws.
Inner
Temple was historically governed in a manner similar to Lincoln's Inn
; it was run by a Treasurer and three
Governors. Members were divided into two categories; Clerks
(
Clerici) admitted to Clerks' Commons and Fellows
Socii admitted to Fellows' Commons. The Governors held
Parliament with a small group of senior barristers; in 1508, for
example, Parliament was held with three Governors and four senior
barristers. The last Governor was elected in 1566, and Benchers
took over later that century. Benchers, or Masters of the Bench,
are elected members of the Parliament responsible for overseeing
the estates, the Inn's finances and setting internal policy. Today
there are approximately 200 Benchers, with honorary, academic and
"royal" Benchers appointed as well as those who practice at the Bar
and form part of the judiciary.
Coat of Arms
The Coat of Arms of the Inner Temple is, in
blazon, "
Azure a pegasus
salient argent", or a
Pegasus.
Gerard Legh is normally given the credit
for having suggested the Pegasus as a coat of arms, having given an
account of
Robert
Dudley playing the part of Prince Pallaphilos, a patron of the
Honorable Order of Pegasus in the 1561 Christmas
revels. It may alternately have come about because of
the tiles in Temple Church, which show a knight on horseback with a
shield and sword raised.
From this point onwards the Arms were
considered the Temple's property, and they were confirmed by the
College of
Arms
in 1967.
Plate
The Inner
Temple is noted for its collection of silver and pewter plate,
described in the early 20th century as similar in value to that of
Oxford
or Cambridge University
. The first reference to plate is in 1534,
with a silver cup left to the Temple as part of the estate of a
Master Sutton. Further pieces were added over the next century,
with
Robert Bowes giving a
silver gilt cup to
Sir
John Baker on 16 May 1563. The cup, which was shaped like a
melon with feet formed from the "tendrils" of the lemon, is a
prized possession of the Temple.
Nicholas
Hare left three silver
salt cellars
for the use of the Benchers in 1597. Two silver candlesticks were
bought in 1606, another salt cellar in 1610 and six silver spoons
in 1619. A large part of the "house plate" was stolen in 1643, and
it is unknown whether it was recovered, although money was spent in
prosecuting the offender.
Two silver cups were bought in 1699, and records from 1 January
1703 show that the Temple owned one gilt cup (the "melon" cup) five
salt cellars, ten large cups, twelvelittle cups, and twenty-three
spoons. Twelve more spoons were bought in 1707, along with another
silver cup, and at some point in this period the Temple purchased
or was given a
nef. A dozen
teaspoons were bought in 1750, a coffee pot in 1788 and an "argyle"
or gravy holder in 1790.
Buildings

Crown Office Row
The Inner
Temple contains many buildings, some modern and some ancient,
although only Temple
Church
dates back to the time of the Knights Templars who originally inhabited
the site.
Chambers
The Inn contains several buildings and sets of buildings used to
house
chamber, with those rooms above
the second floor generally being residential in nature. The sets
are Crown Office Row, Dr Johnson's Buildings, Farrar's Building,
Francis Taylor Building, Harcourt Buildings, Hare Court, King's
Bench Walk, Littleton Building, Mitre Court Buildings, Paper
Buildings and Temple Gardens.
Crown Office Row was named after the Crown Office, which used to
sit on the site and was removed in 1621. The first building
(described by Charles Dugdale as "the Great Brick Building over
against the Garden") was constructed in 1628, and completely
replaced in 1737. The current buildings were designed and built by
Edward Maufe.
Charles Lamb was born in No. 2 Crown Office
Row, which was destroyed during the Second World War, and
Thomas Coventry
maintained a set of chambers there.
Harcourt Buildings were first built in 1703 by John Banks and named
after
Simon
Harcourt, the Treasurer of the time. There were three
buildings, 50 feet wide, 27 feet deep and 3 storeys high.
Replacements were constructed between 1832 and 1833, and were not
particularly attractive—Hugh Bellot said that they "could scarcely
be more unsightly". These replacement were destroyed in 1941, and
new buildings were built based on a design by
Hubert Worthington.
Hare Court was named after Nicholas Hare, who built the first set
in 1567. The west and south sides were destroyed in the fire of
1678. On 31 May 1679 orders were given to replace the west side
with four new buildings three storeys high, which were funded by
the Treasurer (Thomas Hanmer) and the tenants at the time,
including
Judge Jeffreys. The Court
features a
pump, the water of which was noted
in the 19th century for its purity.
King's
Bench Walk has contained buildings since at least 1543, although
these were burnt down in the Great Fire of London
in 1666 and their replacements destroyed in the
fire of 1677. The buildings take their name from the Office
of the
King's Bench,
which was situated in the row and destroyed in the 1677 fire.
Buildings were reconstructed in 1678 and 1684, and a noted
inhabitant of these early constructs was
Lord Mansfield. The current buildings date
from the first, 1678 construction to, most recently, chambers built
in 1948.
Mitre Court Buildings are on the site of Fuller's Rents,
constructed in 1562 by John Fuller, the Temple's Treasurer. Noted
residents of chambers here included
Sir
Edward Coke. Mitre Court was erected on the site in 1830, and
based on a design by
Robert
Smirke. While constructing it the labourers found a hoard of 67
Guinea dated from the reigns
of monarchs from
Charles II to
George II, which were
confiscated by the Clerk of the Works.
Paper Buildings are on the site of Heyward's Buildings, constructed
in 1610. The "paper" part of the name comes from the fact that they
were built from timber, lath and plaster, a construction method
known as "paperwork". A fire in 1838 destroyed three of the
buildings, which were immediately replaced with a design by Robert
Smirke, with
Sydney Smirke later
adding two more buildings. A famous resident of (at the time)
Heyward's Buildings was
John Selden, who
was one of the original tenants and shared a set of chambers with
Heyward himself.
Gardens and Gateway
Inner
Temple Gardens were laid out around 1601, with a set of decorated
railings added in 1618 with the Temple's pegasus and the griffin of
Gray's
Inn
, a sign of the strong relationship between the two;
the design was included in the new iron gates made in 1730, which
are still present. The gardens contain various landmarks,
including a sundial from 1707, a pair of cisterns dated from 1730
and a lead statute of a blackmoor by John
Nost, which was transferred from Clifford's Inn
when Clifford's was destroyed. A rookery was established during the 18th century by
Edward Northey, who
brought a colony of crows from his estates in Epsom
to fill
it. The Gardens were previously noted for their roses, and
William Shakespeare claimed that
the
Wars of the Roses started in
the Inner Temple Garden.
The Gateway is thought to have existed in the same location since
the founding of the Temples by the Knights Templar. It was rebuild
in 1610 by John Bennett, the King's
Serjeant-at-Arms, and again rebuilt in
1748. The building above it (which is not owned by the Inn) is
reputed to have been the council chambers of
Henry Frederick, Prince of
Wales and Charles, Prince of Wales, later
Charles I.
Hall
The original Inner Temple Hall is the Hall or refectory of the
original
Knights Templar building on
the site, and has been dated to the 8th century. It was extensively
repaired in 1606 and 1629, but was still in poor condition in 1816.
Despite this, little was done at that time but replacing the
timbers which had gone rotten and patching the crumbling walls with
brick. As a result of the poor condition and the increasing numbers
of barristers, it was finally demolished in 1868. Its replacement
was a larger hall in the
Gothic style, designed by
Sydney Smirke, which was opened on 14
May 1870 by
Princess
Louise. The new Hall was 94 feet long, 41 feet wide and 40 feet
high, with glass windows featuring the coats of arms of noted
Treasurers from 1506 onwards running around the room. There were
two doors, one to the south and one to the north, which are said by
William Dugdale to be the remnants
of a "great carved screen" erected in 1574.
The Hall was destroyed during the
Second World War, and the foundation stone
for the new hall was laid by
Queen Elizabeth in 1952.
The building was designed by
Hubert
Worthington and opened in 1955 as part of a complex involving
the Hall, Library and Benchers' Chambers.
Library
The original Library existed from at least 1506, and consisted of a
single room. This was not a dedicated library, as it was also used
for dining when there were too many barristers for the hall, and
later for
moots. By 1607 a second room
had been added, and
Edward Coke donated
a copy of his
Reports for the library a year later. The
Library of the Inner Temple was far superior to those of the other
Inns of Court, and "placed the House
far in advance of the other societies". The Library refused to
accept
John Selden's manuscripts in
1654, most likely because the size of the collection would
necessitate a new building, but it has been described as "the
greatest loss which the Library of the Inner Temple ever
sustained".
The Library was entirely destroyed in the
Great Fire
of London
, but a replacement was built in 1668. A
second, smaller fire in 1679 necessitated the destruction of one
library building to act as a
firebreak and
save the hall.
In 1707 the Inner Temple was offered the Petyt Manuscripts and a
sum of £150 to build a new Library, which was completed in 1709 and
consisted of three rooms. A Librarian was appointed immediately,
and the practice continues to this day. Modifications were made in
1867, 1872 and 1882 which extended the Library to eight rooms A new
Library was built on the site of the old one in the 19th century,
with the north wing being completed in 1882, and contained 26,000
law volumes, as well as 36,000 historical and architectural texts.
This building was destroyed during the Second World War, and
although some of the rarest manuscripts had been moved off site,
45,000 books were lost. A replacement Library was built in 1958,
and currently contains approximately 70,000 books.
Temple Church
Temple Church has been described as "the finest of the four round
churches still existing in London". The original Round was
constructed in 1185 by the
Knights
Templar and consecrated by the
Patriarch of Jerusalem on 10
February.
The church was highly regarded during this
period, with William the Marshal
buried there and Henry III
initially making plans before changing to Westminster
Abbey
. After the fall of the Templars the Church,
along with the rest of the Temple, fell into the hands of the
Knights Hospitaller, and from
there passed to
Henry VIII,
who appointed a priest, known as the Master of the Temple. The
Royal Charter granted by
James I
that guaranteed the independence of the Inner and Middle Temples
did so on the condition that the Temples maintain the church, a
requirement which has been followed to this day.
During the reign of
Charles II
the elegant columns which had dominated the Church were covered
with eight-foot tall oak wainscotting. Repairs to the east end of
the Church took place in 1707, and the exterior of the north and
east sides was repaired in 1737. Some further repairs took place in
1811, but the main restoration happened in 1837, when
Robert Smirke restored the south
side and removed most of the wainscotting. This was followed with
more repairs in 1845, which lowered the floor to its original
height, removed ugly whitewash which had been added a century
earlier and led to the discovery of a marble
piscina at the east end. All of this work was
destroyed on 10 May 1941 during the
Second World War, however, when
firebombs gutted the Church. Over the next
decade the Church was restored, and it was reconsecrated in 1954 by
the
Archbishop of
Canterbury.
Notable members
Significant members of the judiciary include
Sir Edward Coke,
Lady Justice
Butler-Sloss, and
Lord Justice
Birkett. Several barrister members have gone on to be highly
important, including
Edward
Marshall-Hall, and legal academics have also been members, such
as
Sir John Baker.
Prime Ministers
Clement Attlee and
George Grenville have both been members, as
was the first
Prime Minister
of Malaysia,
Tunku Abdul
Rahman. Outside of the law and politics, members have included
the poet
Arthur Brooke, Admiral
Francis Drake, dramatist
W. S. Gilbert and the economist
John Maynard Keynes.
References
Bibliography
External links