Thavie's Inn - Origin of Property

Origin of Property

In 1349 John Thavie, an armourer based in the parish of St Andrew's, Holborn, "left a considerable Estate towards the support of the fabric forever" of that church, a legacy which survived the English Reformation. It has been invested carefully through the centuries, and still provides for the church's current upkeep. His name has been transcribed as 'Thavy', 'Tavy' and 'Davy', i.e. the Welsh surname.

In his will, the property is described as an inn "wherein the apprentices used to dwell" (note the past tense) and the assumption is that these were "Law Apprentices" who were known to lodge along Holborn, to be near the chancellor's court, i.e. at the Bishop of Lincoln's establishment there. The property in question is best located by the present Bartlett's Buildings on the south-side of Holborn.

Thavie's original property, which was left for his endowment of the church, may still have been let to 'lawyers' by Thavie's executors for income, and may have been the original home of Lincoln's Inn before it relocated to its present site on Chancery Lane. There is, however, considerable confusion as to just how the names of both the Inn of Chancery and the Inn of Court are derived.

The will's statement uses the past tense and we know from the records of the inn that the community of clerks had moved to the neighbouring house of John de Besvile; it is this site that is associated with the title of 'Thavie's Inn' and the assumption is that the transfer of that name indicates the later lawyers association as having started in the original Thavy premises.

There is a reference, after the relocation but before 1400, to the clerks at Besvile's house being addressed as "treshonorable, tresage compagne de David Inn in Holborn" ie. the 'Right Honourable and Learned Company of David's Inn in Holborn'. A deed of 1419 referring to "Davesynne" is extant. All of these references are important because they are the first record of any formal establishment of lawyers. Lincoln's Inn's own records, the 'Black Books', themselves start in 1422.