Lincoln's Inn - History

History

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, second, a papal bull 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, the nearest place to the law courts at Westminster Hall that was 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. The third 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.