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Irish law students and lawyers in late medieval England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
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In April 1421 the Irish parliament, meeting at Dublin, chose the archbishop of Armagh and Sir Christopher Preston as its messengers to convey to the king in England a long list of complaints. Among these was the following:
Also, your said lieges show that whereas they are ruled and governed by your laws as used in your realm of England, to learn which laws and to be informed therein your said lieges have sent to certain inns of court (hostelles de court) able men of good and gentle birth, your English subjects born in your said land, who have been received there from the time of the conquest of your said land until recently, when the governors and fellows of the said inns would not receive the said persons into the said inns, as is customary. Wherefore may it please your most gracious lordship to consider this and ordain due remedy thereof, that your laws may be perpetuated and not forgotten in your said land.
This was, of course, something of an exaggeration. The Inns of Court certainly did not exist at the time of the English ‘conquest’ of Ireland; indeed, it is now fairly certain that the inns only came into existence around 1340. It is also clear, however, that some kind of organised legal education was taking place in London before the inns were created, certainly as early as the 1270s and quite possibly as early as 1260, though definitely not in the twelfth century. We also know that as early as 1287 Irishmen (or at least one specific Irishman, Robert de St Michael) were crossing the channel ‘causa addiscendi in Banco regis apud Westm’’, that is, specifically for the purpose of legal education at Westminster through attendance at the king’s court there.
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References
1 Stat. Ire., John–Hen. V, p. 575. This is also calendared in Rot. pat. Hib., pp 221-221b, no. ll.
2 Baker, J.H., The third university of England: the Inns of Court and the common-law tradition (Selden Society, London, 1990), pp. 9–12Google Scholar; Readings and moots at the Inns of Court in the fifteenth century, ii, ed. Thorne, S.E. and Baker, J.H. (Selden Society, vol. 105, London, 1990)), pp xxix-xxxGoogle Scholar.
3 Brand, Paul, The making of the common law (London, 1992), pp 61-4Google Scholar.
4 Brand, Paul, The origins of the English legal profession (Oxford, 1992), p. 207Google Scholar. For further details on Robert de St Michael see Kenny, Colum, King’s Inns and the kingdom of Ireland: the Irish ‘Inn of Court’, 1541-1800 (Dublin, 1992), pp 13–14Google Scholar.
5 Horwood, A.J. (ed.), Year books, 33-35 Edward I (London, 1879), p. 97Google Scholar. The verses are also found after reports of the same case in B.L., Hargrave MS 375, f. 200r, in B.L., Harl. MS 572, f. 162v, and in Cambridge University Library, MS Mm. 1.30, f. 30v. He is also presumably the ‘Irland’ who made a brief Latin verse on a case heard in Easter term 1304 (B.L., Stowe MS 386, f. 209v).
6 For a Simon of Ireland sued for a debt of 40s. in 1283 for money due for withdrawal from a trespass suit and who was sued in Buckinghamshire see P.R.O., CP 40/51, m. 99.
7 Cal. doc. Ire., 1285-92, nos 718, 727; Brand, Making of the common law, p. 54. For evidence that he may already have been a serjeant in 1296 see Reg. St John, Dublin, pp 18-19, no. 34.
8 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 7, no. 87.
9 Brand, Making of the common law, p. 55.
10 Cal. pat. rolls, 1324-7, p. 347.
11 Brand, Making of the common law, p. 46.
12 There are two references in 1312-13 to the assignment of a share of damages to him (N.A.I., KB 1/1, mm 5, 52), a common way in Ireland at this date of remunerating serjeants: see Brand, Making of the common law, p. 24.
13 N.A.I., KB 1/1, m. 53 (and cf. m. 3d).
14 Martin, Geoffrey, ‘Plantation boroughs in medieval Ireland, with a handlist of boroughs to c. 1500’ in Harkness, David and O’Dowd, Mary (eds), The town in Ireland: Historical Studies XIII (Belfast, 1981), pp 44-5Google Scholar.
15 Brand, Making of the common law, p. 46.
16 Ibid., pp 31-2, 462, 464.
17 Thomas, A.H. (ed.), Calendar of the plea and memoranda rolls of the city of London, 1323-64 (Cambridge, 1926), p. 213Google Scholar.
18 Thorne & Baker, (eds), Readings & moots, ii, pp xliii-xlivGoogle Scholar.
19 Cal. pat. rolls, 1340-43, p. 570.
20 Ibid., 1348-50, p. 254; ibid., 1350-54, p. 244; ibid., 1354-8, p. 29. He may have made a home visit to Ireland in 1352 (ibid., 1350-54, p. 356). Relative seniority within the profession may be indicated by his appearance in 1352 and 1353 among those commissioned to inquire on those breaking into parks and closes of the queen (though this might be a namesake) (ibid., 1350-54, pp 287, 288, 448-9). He became king’s serjeant in 1358 and was later a royal justice in Ireland.
21 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 50, no. 89. He became king’s serjeant in 1348, and in 1358 chief justice of the Dublin bench.
22 Cal. pat. rolls, 1354-8, pp 97, 275, 535; ibid., 1358-61, p. 63. In 1366 he became king’s serjeant and was later appointed a puisne justice of the justiciar’s court, finally becoming chief justice of the Dublin bench.
23 Ibid., 1350-54, p. 244 (with Richard Plunket). By 1354 he was back in Ireland and acting as Richard Plunket’s general attorney there (ibid., 1354-8, p. 29). In November 1352 he was licensed (with Plunket and one other) to buy wheat in Ireland and bring it to England or Wales for profit (ibid., 1350-54, p. 356). He was paid a fee by Archbishop Sweteman as a serjeant and later was a justice and chief justice of the justiciar’s court.
24 Ibid., 1377-81, pp 79, 82, 269, 274, 327, 393. In 1381 he became a king’s serjeant, and he served as chief justice of the justiciar’s court in 1382 and again in 1391-3.
25 Ibid., pp 398 (jointly with the future Irish serjeant of the Westminster bench, William Skrene), 600 (jointly with John Bermingham, a future king’s serjeant and royal justice), 614. Even after this first visit he was sufficiently senior within the profession in Ireland to be commissioned in September 1386 with Peter Rowe, the king’s serjeant, to inquire as to the goods and chattels of John Penros, late justice of the justiciar’s court, who had fled from Ireland, and as to extortions committed by him (Rot. pat. Hib., p. 136, no. 183) and to be appointed in July 1389 as justice for an assize of novel disseisin with Peter Rowe and Richard Cruys (ibid., p. 146, no. 182).
26 Ibid., p. l49b, no. 101.
27 For evidence that readings on the statutes go back to at least the reign of Richard II and quite possibly the second quarter of the fourteenth century see Baker, Third university, p. 6; Thorne & Baker, (eds), Readings & moots, ii, pp xxiii-xxvGoogle Scholar.
28 Cal. pat. rolls, 1377-81, p. 600; 1381-5, p. 227. It was after this first visit that he is to be found acting as a serjeant for All Hallows outside Dublin some time before March 1391 (Reg. All Hallows, Dublin, pp 89-90) and as the king’s serjeant (in Counties Dublin, Meath, Louth and Carlow) from 24 September 1388 onwards.
29 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 149b, no. 100. On 12 October 1392 he also appointed general attorneys to act for him while in England (ibid., p. 148b, nos 67-8).
30 Ibid., p. 149b, no. 99.
31 Ibid., p. 163, no. 109.
32 Ibid., p. 164, no. 152. He received a further licence of absence (with no cause stated) in March 1414 (ibid., p. 202b, no. 32). He is perhaps the ‘Goldyng’ who occurs as a ‘yeoman’ in a fragment of an early fifteenth-century steward’s account from an unidentified Inn of Court in Cambridge University Library, Additional MS 8936 (vellum guard between ff 6 and 7) (I owe this reference to Professor J. H. Baker).
33 Rot. pat. Hib., pp 176, no. 148; 217, no. 9; 221b, no. 112; Dowdall deeds, no. 416.
34 Cal. close rolls, 1399-1401, pp 446, 447. But he had been in England earlier, for in September 1397 he was appointed a general attorney there for two years (Cal. pat. rolls, 1396-9, p. 187). In 1401 he was a sufficiently senior figure to be appointed as one of the guardians ad litem to act in England for the king’s son, Thomas of Lancaster, chief governor of Ireland (ibid., 1401-3, p. 1 ).
35 Cal. pat. rolls, 1401-5, p. 480. Evidence to suggest that he may already have embarked on a professional career in the law is provided by the letters patent of 1399 appointing him the general attorney in Ireland of a man living in England (ibid., 1399-1401, p. 145) and the renewal of these letters for a further year in 1403 (ibid., 1401-5, p. 228).
36 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 193b, no. 170. In 1415 he was named to a general oyer and terminer commission for Dublin, Meath, Louth and Drogheda immediately after the treasurer of Ireland and the chief justice of the Dublin bench (ibid., p. 211, no. 38).
37 Baker, J.H., English legal manuscripts in the United States of Amercia, i: Medieval and Renaissance (Selden Society, London, 1985), p. 22Google Scholar.
38 He is possibly the son and heir of the Thomas Talbot who held land valued at £20 in Dublin, Meath and Kildare, whose wardship was granted to Thomas Flemming in 1400 (Cal. pat. rolls, 1399-1401, p. 227).
39 Facs nat. MSS Ire., iii, app. vi and plate xxxix. The entry is also calendared in Rot. pat. Hib. pp 247-8, no. 9.
40 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 263b, no. 21.
41 The records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn: Admissions, A.D. 1420-1893 (2 vols, London, 1896), i, 4. ProfessorBaker, J.H.Google Scholar, however, has pointed out to me that this may have been the Thomas Somerton who was sued for arrears of dues owed at Lincoln’s Inn in 1448.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid., p. 7.
44 Ibid.
45 The records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn: Black Books, A.D. 1422-1914 (5 vols, London, 1897-1968), i, 8.
46 Ives, E.W., The common lawyers of pre-Reformation England (Cambridge, 1983), pp 38–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
47 Rot. parl., iv, 13, no.39.
48 Cal. close rolls, 1429-35, pp 42, 91; ibid., 1435-41, p. 255; P.R.O., C 255/3/9, nos 16, 17.
49 Kenny, King’s Inns, p. 17.
50 Lincoln’s Inn Admissions, i, 11.
51 Ibid., p.l2.
52 Lincoln’s Inn Black Books, i, 24.
53 Ibid.; Lincoln’s Inn Admissions, i, 13.
54 Lincoln’s Inn Admissions, i, 14.
55 Ibid., p. 11.
56 Ibid., p. l3.
57 Ibid., p. 21; Lincoln’s Inn Black Books, i, 64. Bermingham seems still to have been there in 1486, when he was put out of commons for various offences but paid a fine for readmission (Lincoln’s Inn Black Books, i, 84).
58 Lincoln’s Inn Admissions, i, 22-4; Lincoln’s Inn Black Books, i, 64, 82-3.
59 Lincoln’s Inn Black Books, i, 261.
60 Ibid., p. 315.
61 Ibid., p. 205.
62 Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, p. 725. This may well be the Barnaby Barnwall who in 1461 became a justice of the justiciar’s court.
63 Stat. Ire., 1-12 Edw. IV, pp 791, 793-5.
64 Stat. Ire., 12-22 Edw. IV, pp 811-3.
65 On this occasion two men acknowledged owing a debt to him in the English court of king’s bench which was payable in London (P.R.O., KB 26/181, m. 11). I take it that he is the man found suing for the king in the 1260 Cork eyre (N.A.I., RC 7/1, pp 248, 260) and in the Dublin bench or Dublin eyre of 1261 (ibid., pp 323, 327) and who by c. 1270 had become deputy seneschal of Kildare (P.R.I. rep. D.K. 36, p. 23).
66 In 1278 William was appointed the attorney of the abbot of Dunbrody for a case in the English court of king’s bench (Cal. doc. Ire., 1252-84, no. 1448) and in 1279 was again appointed by the abbot for another suit there (though his name is here recorded as John of Athy) (ibid., no. 1541). In 1282 he was given letters of protection while in England as a king’s serjeant (Cal. pat. rolls, 1281-92, p. 16).
67 N.A.I., RC 7/10, p. 585. This was probably on the business of the city of Dublin for which he had originally agreed a payment of 20 marks but eventually demanded 50 marks instead (Cal. justic. rolls Ire., 1305-7, pp 315-16).
68 Cal. pat. rolls, 1327-30, pp 471-2, 475. He did not return to Ireland until September 1330 (ibid., 1330-34, p. 4).
69 P.R.O., KB 27/283, m. 155 et seq.; ibid., KB 27/286, m. 128. That he was in England in person for these proceedings is shown by the letters of attorney he obtained when returning to Ireland from England in December 1331 (Cal. pat. rolls, 1330-34, p. 227).
70 Cal. close rolls, 1341-3, pp 492, 554-5.
71 For a fuller discussion of Skrene and his career and for full references for what follows see Brand, Paul, ‘An Irishman in Westminster Hall: William Skrene of Dundalk, king’s serjeant at law (c. 1358 – c. 1420)’ in Ir. Jurist, n.s., xxxi (1996), pp 255-65Google Scholar.
72 Coke, Edward, The first part of the Institutes of the laws of England (5th ed., London, 1656), p. 377bGoogle Scholar.
73 Foss, Edward, The judges of England, 1066-1864 (9 vols, London, 1848-64), iv, 174-6Google Scholar; D.N.B. entry.
74 Cal. pat. rolls, 1377-81, pp 381, 547.
75 Ibid., 1391-6, p. 300. Skrene seems also in effect to have stood surety for the payment of part or all of the purchase price (Cal. close rolls, 1392-6, p. 222).
76 Cal. close rolls, 1405-9, p. 504.
77 Reg. Arundel, ff 243r–244r (Lambeth Palace Library).
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