At later periods of the seventeenth century barristers made large
incomes, but the fees seem to have been by no means exorbitant. Junior
barristers received very modest payments, and it would appear that
juniors received fees from eminent counsel for opinions and other
professional services. Whilst he acted as treasurer of the Middle
Temple, at an early period of his career, Whitelock received a fee from
Attorney General Noy. "Upon my carrying the bill," writes Whitelock, "to
Mr. Attorney General Noy for his signature, with that of the other
benchers, he was pleased to advise with me about a patent the king had
commanded him to draw, upon which he gave me a fee for it out of his
little purse, saying, 'Here, take those single pence,' which amounted to
eleven groats, 'and I give you more than an attorney's fee, because you
will be a better man than the Attorney General. This you will find to be
true.' After much other drollery, wherein he delighted and excelled, we
parted, abundance of company attending to speak to him all this time."
Of course the payment itself was no part of the drollery to which
Whitelock alludes, for as a gentleman he could not have taken money
proffered to him in jest, unless etiquette encouraged him to look for
it, and allowed him to accept it. The incident justifies the inference
that the services of junior counsel to senior barristers--services at
the present time termed 'devilling'--were formerly remunerated with cash
payments.
Toward the close of Charles I.'s reign--at a time when political
distractions were injuriously affecting the legal profession, especially
the staunch royalists of the long robe--Maynard, the Parliamentary
lawyer, received on one round of the Western Circuit, L700, "which,"
observes Whitelock, to whom Maynard communicated the fact, "I believe
was more than any one of our profession got before."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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