Seat of the Knights Templar prior to the suppression of the order in 1312, the ‘Temple’ lay just beyond the western reach of London Wall, between Fleet Street and the Thames. As early as the reign of Edward III (1312–77) the Temple accommodated both the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem and legal professionals, the latter enjoying easy access to the royal courts of Westminster. The Paston letters of November 1440 contain the earliest known reference to the Inner Temple, also called a ‘college’; subsequent letters in the same series identify the Middle Temple in similar terms. Though the site was and remains a walled (or fenced) and gated enclosure, the internal boundary between the two inns is not a wall but a lane. Symbolic of the traditionally peaceful coexistence of the two Inns is the Temple Church, shared and governed by both.
The Inner Temple occupies the eastern (down-river) half of the Temple grounds. Further to the east is the site of the Whitefriars’ monastery, historically a ‘liberty.’ Entrances to the Inner Temple include one or more gates to the north along Fleet Street and a water-gate leading to the Thames (now to the Embankment).
Physically the Inner Temple comprised law chambers, which traditionally doubled as resi- dential facilities, a hall, the Temple Church, a library, gardens, and a treasury. Alone among the four Inns the Inner Temple lacks its early-modern hall, demolished in 1866 (see p xlii). The Inner Temple retains an old-world atmosphere, a consequence of careful reconstruction following extensive devastation in World War II.
The governing body of the Inner Temple, called the parliament, consisted of all members holding the rank of master of the bench (or ‘bencher’). Parliament was convened in the hall (‘at the bench,’ that is, the benchers’ or high table) at two- or three-week intervals through- out the year. The orders of this body, called acts of parliament, were for the most part entered into a series of Parliament Books. By tradition the benchers governed only during term, while the masters of the bar (‘barristers’) governed during vacations, and junior members governed during Christmas vacation.
All Inner Temple administrative records earlier than 1505 and all financial records earlier than 1606 are wanting. At the close of World War II, when the surviving archives were being returned after having been removed for safe-keeping, certain documents were damaged by fire in a road accident. Had they not been removed, however, they would not have survived at all, as the Inner Temple was almost completely destroyed by enemy bombing, including all of the library’s records and all its modern printed books.
Archives of the Inner Temple are in the custody of the sub-treasurer. Prior to 1989 they were maintained in a strong room in the treasurer’s office. In 1990 the historical archives were moved to a new purpose-built room, where they are supervised by the master of the archives.
Inner Temple Parliament Books
Most Inner Temple parliament acts were recorded in a series of Parliament Books. Occasionally, however, acts strayed into other documents, such as the act of 23 December 1624 (see p 213) concerning expenses at Christmas, which survives only in the Christmas Account Book for that year.
Damaged by fire the three earliest Parliament Books are partly carbonized along all three outside edges, with the result that some lines of text and even whole entries are now illegible. Repaired and rebound c 1960 the volumes remain brittle and difficult to open (especially the first volume in the series).
The standard essential publication is F.A. Inderwick (ed), A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, 2 vols (London, 1896, 1898). Lost text can sometimes be supplied from Inderwick.57
Access the Inner Temple Parliament Books by year: 1505-6, 1506-7, 1507-8, 1508-9, 1509-10, 1510-11, 1511-12, 1512-13, 1514-15, 1515-16, 1516-17, 1518-19, 1519-20, 1520-1, 1522-3, 1523-4, 1526-7, 1527-8, 1533-4, 1534-5, 1538-9, 1539-40, 1542-3, 1544-5, 1545-6, 1546-7, 1552-3, 1553-4, 1554-5, 1555-6, 1561-2, 1577-8, 1582-3, 1589-90, 1610-11, 1611-12, 1612-13, 1615-16, 1616-17, 1627-8, 1628-9, 1633-4, 1634-5, 1636-7, 1638-9
Inner Temple Admissions Register
Access Admissions Register: 1561-2
Inner Temple Treasurers', Stewards', and Butlers' Accounts
Early treasurers’ accounts survive in one volume only, 1606–48; the same volume preserves occasional accounts of the steward and butler. For the period 1606–9 separate accounts are given for the treasurer, the steward, and the butler. Thereafter accounts are undivided.
In addition to the documents described below, two fragmentary copies of the treasurers’ accounts for 1621–2 and 1623–4 survive in the Birmingham Reference Library: Coventry MSS 660743, nos. 35 & 36. These are duplicate copies which originally belonged to Sir Thomas Coventry, the treasurer. Each lacks the page recording payments for music and plays in those years, so are not collated here.
Access the Inner Temple Treasurers', Stewards', and Butlers' Accounts by year: 1605-6, 1606-7, 1607-8, 1608-9, 1609-10, 1610-11, 1611-12, 1612-13, 1613-14, 1614-15, 1615-1616, 1616-17, 1617-18, 1618-19, 1619-20, 1620-1, 1621-2, 1622-3, 1623-4, 1624-5, 1625-6, 1626-7, 1627-8, 1628-9, 1629-30, 1630-1, 1631-2, 1632-3, 1633-4, 1634-5, 1635-6, 1636-7, 1637-8, 1638-9, 1639-40, 1640-1, 1641-2
Inner Temple Christmas Accounts
The Christmas account book for 1614–82 is unique among the surviving records of the Inns, though there must have been others of its kind. It contains receipts and payments of the stewards of Christmas commons and is cited here largely for weekly expenditures on music for the revels. The stewards (of whom there were customarily three or four) entered receipts and expenses for the four weeks of Christmas commons beginning at the feast of St Thomas (21 December) and ending a week after Epiphany. For some years only three weeks of commons are recorded. Expenditures for food and drink are recorded daily, other expenses weekly. The volume also contains the text of some acts of parliament. Accounts for the following years are missing: 1625–6, 1630–1, 1632–40, 1642–60.
The Christmas account of William York for a single first week of the Christmas commons of 1633 fills a lacuna in the Christmas Account Book. A second account, kept by John Williams, another 1633 Christmas steward, was identified by archivists at the Derbyshire Record Office in 1988 (D258/Box 30/8), but as it yields no entries of REED interest further details are omitted here. A third account was kept by Henry Kemp for the third and fourth weeks of Christmas in this same year. All three documents are associated with the ‘Gell papers,’ documents from 1610–48 originally gathered by Thomas Gell of the Inner Temple (admitted 28 May 1612). Henry Chandos-Pole (1829–1902), second son of Edward Sacheverell Chandos-Pole, inherited Hopton Hall and estate from Philip Gell, formally taking the name Gell in 1865. The papers are now allocated permanently to the Derbyshire Record Office. Searches for the third docu- ment in the Derbyshire Record Office in 1988 and again in 1991 were unsuccessful.
Access Inner Temple Christmas Accounts by year: 1614-5, 1615-6, 1616-7, 1617-8, 1618-9, 1619-20, 1620-1, 1621-2, 1622-3, 1623-4, 1624-5, 1626-7, 1627-8, 1628-9, 1629-30, 1631-2, 1633-4, 1641-2
Expense Memorandum of Thomas Nash
This Thomas Nash, not to be confused with the playwright of the same name, was a barrister (called 1617, d. 1648) with chambers in Hare Court. In July 1634 he was steward for the reader’s feast.
Access Expense Memorandum of Thomas Nash: 1633-4