Wednesday 5th August 2009
The Inns of Court by Manuela Sowter
She is a Registered City of London Guide and an Associate Member of the Institute of Tourist Guiding
A very interesting and well presented talk with a great deal of enthusiasm on the Inns of Court by Manuela Sowter (shown left), who is a London Guide, we were taken on a journey through the three of the four courts, Lincoln's Inn, Inner and Middle Temples whilst Gray's Inn was mentioned but not covered.
Looking at the birth of the Inns (dating from 1292) and the reason why they came into being, as well as some of the famous people connected with them.
This presentation was supported by many slides of which a only few are shown here.
The Inns have centuries of heritage and tradition, and still today continue to train the barristers that present our problems at Court. The Inns offer the young students of law, support, a library, educational activities, societies, common rooms, gardens and a chapel. The Bar is said still to be the only profession in this country to maintains the closest connection between all grades and the younger ones learn from their elders the customs, eloquence and friendship which is needed when they are called to the Bar.
Later Manuela introduced us to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, the Central Criminal Court The Old Bailey and some of the most famous trials in the last two centuries, with a photograph of the Crippen trial at the The Old Bailey, photographs have been since been banned.
Introduction to the Inns of Court
Manuela stated the four Inns of Court (coat of Arms above) have the exclusive right to Call men and women to the Bar - i.e. to admit those who have fulfilled the necessary qualifications to the degree of Barrister-at-Law, which entitles them, after a period vocational training either to practise as independent advocates in the Courts of England and Wales or to take employment in government or local government service, industry, commerce or finance. Thus, to qualify as a barrister, everyone must join an Inn and keep a qualifying session on at least 12 occasions.
The government of each Inn is ultimately controlled by the Masters of the Bench, elected mainly from among its members who are also senior members of the judiciary or Queen's Counsel.
The Inner Temple
Manuela said the recorded history of the area known as the Temple begins in about 1160 when it was acquired by the Knights of the Military Order of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, who moved their London base there from the Old Temple site in Holborn. Following the loss of the Holy Land in the 1290s, the Order of the Temple declined and in 1312 was dissolved.
The Templars estates were granted by the Pope to the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and, although the New Temple was seized initially by Edward II as forfeit to the Crown, the King conceded the consecrated portion and subsequently the whole site.
The Inner Temple Library provides a service for Inner Temple barristers and students and for barrister members of the other Inns of Court. Facilities include a reference library of over 100,000 volumes of English law.
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple is one of the four inns of court which between them are responsible for the selection, training and regulation of barristers in England and Wales. It occupies the eastern half of a site, known as the Temple, which was chosen by the crusading Knights Templar in the twelfth century as their London headquarters. The round church which they constructed there, modelled on the Church of St. Sepulchre in Jerusalem, still forms part of the Temple Church.
By the mid-fourteenth century, when the royal courts became permanently sited in Westminster, the Temple had become a home for lawyers who formed two societies there, the Inner and the Middle Temple, each occupying one of the halls constructed by the Templars on the site. Their status was formally recognised in 1608, when James I granted the land jointly to them in perpetuity for the accommodation, entertainment and education of students and practitioners of the law. Although the buildings which it occupies have changed considerably over time, the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple continues to fulfil this role to the present day.
Lincoln's Inn
In the heart of Central London lies Lincoln's Inn, a haven from the roar of traffic and crowded pavements. The Inn occupies most of the rectangle formed by High Holborn on the north, Carey Street and the Royal Courts of Justice on the south, Chancery Lane on the east and Lincoln's Inn Fields on the west. Indeed, if one excludes the frontage to High Holborn and the south-eastern block, the eleven acres of the Inn comprise virtually all that remains. The Inn is old, very old; but it is no mere relic. It houses a living, functional body of public importance, the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn.
''Lincoln's Inn'' is thus a term which describes both the place and the Society which inhabits it.
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is said to take its name from Henry de Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1311. His own great house was adjacent and he is credited with being the Society's patron. Although the other three Inns of Court are of comparable antiquity, having evolved from uncertain origins in the fourteenth century, Lincoln's Inn can claim the oldest extant records, the Black Books, which record its principal activities from 1422 to this day.
Middle Temple
No precise date can be given for the establishment of the Middle Temple, or for that matter of the other three Inns of Court, though it is likely that the four Inns had come into being by the middle of the 14th century. The Inn's name derives from the Knights Templar who were in possession of the site we now call the Temple for some 150 years. The origins of the Inn trace from two roots: the occupation of the Knights and the replacement of priestly lawyers by a lay profession.
The Inns provide support for barristers and student barristers through a range of educational activities, lunching and dining facilities, access to common rooms and gardens, and provision of various grants and scholarships.
She showed a wide range of slides and gave each a thumbnail description supplemented by the date/s and personage involved, such that this brief report cannot do justice and hence further details can be obtained with thanks and permission from Manuela's website which is www.manuelas-pathways.co.uk
She concluded her presentation with the story (true or false?) of two lady Barristers who having been called to "The bar" were refused service at a real wine bar and took the proprietor to Court and won their case and having been awarded damages of £5,000 or £10,000 depending who was telling the story, returned to the wine bar and were served as the law required but the riposte was that the bill for the two drinks equated the damages awarded, this was itself was within the law!
In his vote of thanks after question time John Coomber, thanked Manuela for a most interesting illustrated lecture and for her enthusiastic presentation of the history of English law and customs, thank you, the membership responded in agreement.
