Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
"Thomas de Kydemenstre, shoemaker, was summoned to answer William
de Beverlee, because he did not clothe, feed and instruct his
apprentice Thomas, William's son, but drove him away. The
defendant said that the apprentice lent his master's goods to
others and promised to restore them or their value, but went away
against his wish; and he demanded a jury. Subsequently, a jury of
William de Upton and others said the apprentice lent two pairs of
shoes belonging to his master and was told to restore them, but,
frightened by the beating which he received, ran away; further
that the master did not feed and clothe his apprentice as he
ought, being unable to do so, to the apprentice's damage 40d., but
that he was now in a position to look after his apprentice.
Thereupon Thomas de Kydemenstre said he was willing to have the
apprentice back and provide for him, and the father agreed.
Judgment that the master take back the apprentice and feed and
instruct him, or that he repay to the father, the money paid to
the latter, and that he pay the father the 40d. and be in mercy."
A professional class of temporal attorneys whose business it is to
appear on behalf of litigants is prominent in the nation.
Attorneys are now drawn from the knightly class of landed
gentlemen, instead of ecclesiastical orders. Since it was
forbidden for ecclesiastics to act as advocates in the secular
courts, those who left the clergy to become advocates adopted a
close-fitting cap to hide their tonsures, which came to be called
a "coif". The great litigation of the nation is conducted by a
small group of men, as is indicated by the earliest Year Books of
case decisions. They sit in court and will sometimes intervene as
amicus curiae [friends of the court]. Parliament refers difficult
points of law to them as well as to the justices. These reports
became so authoritative that they could be cited in the courts as
precedent. Groups of attorneys from the countryside who are
appearing in London courts during term-time and living in
temporary lodgings start to form guild-like fellowships and buy
property where they dine and reside together, called the Inns of
Court. They begin to think of themselves as belonging to a
profession, with a feeling of responsibility for training the
novices who sat in court to learn court procedures and attorney
techniques. They invited these students to supper at the Inns of
Court for the purpose of arguing about the day's cases. The Inns
of Court evolved a scheme of legal education, which was oral and
used disputations. Thus they became educational institutions as
well as clubs for practicing attorneys. The call to the bar of an
Inn was in effect a degree. To be an attorney one had to be
educated and certified at the Inns of Court. They practice law
full time. Some are employed by the King. Justices come to be
recruited from among those who had passed their lives practicing
law in court, instead of from the ecclesiastical orders. All
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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