Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these inns. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple, and Gray's Inn.
Lincoln's Inn is situated in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden, just on the border with the City of London and the City of Westminster, and across the road from London School of Economics and Political Science, Royal Courts of Justice and King's College London's Maughan Library. The nearest tube station is Holborn tube station or Chancery Lane.
Lincoln's Inn is the largest Inn, covering. It is believed to be named after Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln.
History
During the 12th and early 13th centuries, the law was taught in the City of London, primarily by the clergy. Two events ended this form of legal education: firstly, a papal bull in 1218 prohibited the clergy from teaching the common law, rather than canon law; and secondly, a decree by Henry III of England on 2 December 1234 that no institutes of legal education could exist in the City of London. The secular lawyers migrated to the hamlet of Holborn, near to the law courts at Westminster Hall and outside the City.As with the other Inns of Court, the precise date of founding of Lincoln's Inn is unknown. The Inn can claim the oldest records – its "black books" documenting the minutes of the governing council go back to 1422, and the earliest entries show that the inn was at that point an organised and disciplined body. Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln had encouraged lawyers to move to Holborn, and they moved to Thavie's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery, later expanding into Furnival's Inn as well. It is felt that Lincoln's Inn became a formally organised inn of court soon after the earl's death in 1310.
At some point before 1422, the greater part of "Lincoln's Inn", as they had become known, after the earl, moved to the estate of Ralph Neville, the Bishop of Chichester, near Chancery Lane. They retained Thavie's and Furnival's Inn, using them as "training houses" for young lawyers, and fully purchased the properties in 1550 and 1547 respectively. In 1537, the land Lincoln's Inn sat on was sold by Bishop Richard Sampson to a Bencher named William Suliard, and his son sold the land to Lincoln's Inn in 1580. The Inn became formally organised as a place of legal education thanks to a decree in 1464, which required a Reader to give lectures to the law students there.
During the 15th century, the Inn was not a particularly prosperous one, and the Benchers, particularly John Fortescue, are credited with fixing this situation.
In 1920, Lincoln's Inn added its first female member: Marjorie Powell.
Structure and governance
Lincoln's Inn had no constitution or fundamental form of governance, and legislation was divided into two types; statutes, passed by the Governors and ordinances issued by the Society. A third method used was to have individual Fellows promise to fulfil a certain duty; the first known example is from 1435, and starts "Here folowen certaynes covenantes and promyses made to the felloweshippe of Lyncoll' Yne". The increase of the size of the Inn led to a loss of its partially democratic nature, first in 1494 when it was decided that only Benchers and Governors should have a voice in calling people to the Bar and, by the end of the sixteenth century, Benchers were almost entirely in control.Admissions were recorded in the black books and divided into two categories: Clerks who were admitted to Clerks' Commons; and Fellows who were admitted to Fellows' Commons. All entrants swore the same oath regardless of category, and some Fellows were permitted to dine in Clerks' Commons as it cost less, making it difficult for academics to sometimes distinguish between the two – Walker, the editor of the Black Books, maintains that the two categories were one and the same. During the 15th century, the Fellows began to be called Masters, and the gap between Masters and Clerks gradually grew, with an order in 1505 that no Master was to be found in Clerks' Commons unless studying a point of law there. By 1466, the Fellows were divided into Benchers, those "at the Bar", and those "not at the Bar". By 1502, the extra barram Fellows were being referred to as "inner barristers", in contrast to the "utter" or "outer" barristers.
In Lord Mansfield's time, there was no formal legal education, and the only requirement for a person to be called to the Bar was for him to have eaten five dinners a term at Lincoln's Inn, and to have read the first sentence of a paper prepared for him by the steward.
Benchers
A Bencher, Benchsitter or Master of the Bench is a member of the Council, the governing body of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. The term originally referred to one who sat on the benches in the main hall of the Inn, which were used for dining and during moots, and the term originally had no significance. In Lincoln's Inn, the idea of a Bencher was believed to have begun far earlier than elsewhere; there are records of four Benchers being sworn in 1440.William Holdsworth and the editor of the Black Books both concluded that Benchers were, from the earliest times, the governors of the Inn, unlike other Inns who started with Readers. A. W. B. Simpson, writing at a later date, decided based on the Black Books that the Benchers were not the original governing body, and that the Inn was instead ruled by Governors, sometimes called Rulers, who led the Inn. The Governors were elected to serve a year-long term, with between four and six sitting at any one time.
The first record of Benchers comes from 1478, when John Glynne was expelled from the Society for using "presumptious and unsuitable words" in front of the governors and "other fellows of the Bench", and a piece of legislation passed in 1489 was "ordained by the governors and other the worshipfuls of the Bench". By the late 15th century, the ruling group were the Governors with assistance and advice from the other "masters of the Bench", and occasional votes from the entire Society. The Benchers were still subordinate to the Governors, however; a note from 1505 shows the admission of two Benchers "to aid and advice for the good governing of the Inn, but not to vote". The practice of using Governors died out in 1572 and, from 1584, the term was applied to Benchers, with the power of a Governor and a new Bencher being synonymous.
There are approximately 296 Benchers as of November 2013, with the body consisting of those members of the Inn elected to high judicial office, those who have sat as King's Counsel for six or seven years and some of the more distinguished "junior" barristers. There are also "additional benchers"—members of the Inn who have been successful in a profession other than the law, who have the rights of a normal bencher except that they cannot hold an office, such as Treasurer. In addition there are "honorary benchers", who hold all the rights of a Bencher except the right to vote and the right to hold an office. These are people of "sufficient distinction" who have been elected by the Inn, and includes people such as Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
In common with the other Inns, Lincoln's Inn also has a "Royal Bencher"—a member or members of the Royal Family who have been elected Benchers. The present Royal Bencher is the Duke of Kent who was elected after the death of the previous incumbent, Princess Margaret. In 1943, when she was elected as Royal Bencher, Queen Mary became the first female Bencher in any Inn. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was elected a Royal Bencher in December 2012.
Buildings and architectural points of note
Lincoln’s Inn’s estate comprises collegiate buildings, barristers’ chambers, commercial premises and residential apartments. The Inn is situated between Chancery Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields, north of Inner and Middle Temples and south of Gray's Inn. Lincoln's Inn is surrounded by a brick wall separating it from the neighbourhood; this was first erected in 1562, and it is said that Ben Jonson did some of the brickwork. The only surviving part is that on the western side between the North Lawn and the Fields. As well as the major buildings discussed below, the Inn consists of: Old Square, Old Buildings, Stone Buildings and Hardwicke buildings.First built in 1683, New Square, sometimes known as Serle Court, finished in about 1697. New Square was originally named Serle's Court because it was built as a compromise between the Inn and Henry Serle over ownership of the land. A compromise was made in 1682, and Serle built 11 brick sets of chambers on three sides of the square between 1682 and 1693. Alterations were made in 1843, when the open area in the middle was replaced by gardens and lawns. Because of its difficult history of ownership, some parts of the Square are still freehold, with individuals owning floors or sections of floors within the buildings. The was passed directly to allow the Inn to charge the various freeholders in the Square fees.
Stone Buildings was built between 1775 and 1780 using the designs of Robert Taylor, with the exception of No. 7, which was completed the range in the same style in 1845. The design was originally meant to be part of a massive rebuilding of the entire Inn, but this was never completed. Stone Buildings were seriously damaged during The Blitz, but their external appearance remains much the same. From "within" it appears as a cul de sac rather than a square, the two ranges closed to the north with a third which originally contained the library. The eastern side along Chancery Lane and the western backing onto the North Lawn. These provide the standard layout of "staircases" of working chambers. From the North Lawn there is no access but the west range provides a fine institutional range of some distinction.
No. 10 was originally provided by the Inn to strengthen its ties with Chancery as the office of the Six Clerks of the Court of Chancery, with the Inn taking it back when the Clerks were abolished and the Court moved to the Royal Courts of Justice in 1882. It is currently used as the headquarters of the Inns of Court & City Yeomanry, part of the Territorial Army. The Officers Mess facilities make use of the principal rooms. Lincoln's Inn has maintained a corps of volunteers in times of war since 1585, when 95 members of the Inn made a pledge to protect Queen Elizabeth against Spain. George III gave the then-temporary unit the epithet "The Devil's Own", which remains attached to the Regiment to this day. There is a large War Memorial between New Square and the North lawn containing the names of the members of the Inn killed in the First World War and World War 2.
Old Square and Old Buildings were built between 1525 and 1609, initially running between numbers 1 and 26. Although 1 exists near the Gatehouse, the others now only run from 16 to 24, with some buildings having been merged to the point where the entrances for 25 and 26 now frame windows, not doorways. Hardwicke Buildings was built in the 1960s, was originally named "Hale Court", between the east range of New Square name changed in the 1990s. The buildings of Lincoln's Inn in Old Square, New Square and Stone Buildings are normally divided into four or five floors of barristers' chambers, with residential flats on the top floor. The buildings are used both by barristers and solicitors and other professional bodies.