Seven panels of heraldic glass have been transferred from the old Chapel to the new windows of the Museum, and some fragments of a fine chancel arch of the thirteenth century, found in the East wall, are there preserved. In the Museum a series of Documents of historical interest are exhibited, ranging from Domesday Book to the Coronation Roll of Queen Victoria. One of the most interesting, perhaps, of the many autographs is the suggestive signature of Guy Fawkes before and after he had been examined by torture.[78]
In view of the origin of this House of the Rolls, it is interesting to note that Jews began to be admitted to the Bar at the beginning of last century. In 1833 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis
CLIFFORD’S INN
Showing the gloomy little Hall reconstructed in 1797 (see [p. 178]), a corner of the shady garden, and the fretted lantern of St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleet Street.
Goldsmid was ‘called’ at Lincoln’s Inn, and Sir George Jessel in 1847. The latter, in 1873, succeeded Lord Romilly as Master of the Rolls, and Keeper of those Records which are stored upon the site of the House founded for the maintenance of converted Jews and Infidels.
CHAPTER IX
THE SERJEANTS AND SERJEANTS’ INNS
Like so much of the history of the Lawyers and their Inns, the origin of the Serjeants and the steps by which they obtained a monopoly of pleading are buried in obscurity. It is, at any rate, certain that the Serjeants-at-Law, or Servientes ad legem, early acquired the exclusive right of audience in the Court of Common Pleas, wherein were determined all matters between subject and subject, where the King was not a party.
The Serjeants-at-Law had secured a monopoly of pleading; but, as business increased in the Courts, they found themselves unable to deal with it. In 1292, therefore, they were empowered, by an ordinance of Edward I., to select from the students and apprentices of the Common Law some of those best qualified to transact affairs in the King’s Courts (cf. p. 6). It is not clear who these students and apprentices were, but they were destined in the course of time to supersede the body of Counsel whom they were called in to aid.