MEMORANDA
RELATIVE TO THE
Society of the Temple,
LONDON;
Written in or about the Year 1760.
The Societies of the Temple have no Charter; but the Fee was granted by a Patent to the Professors and Students of the Law, to them and their Successors for ever.
The King is Visitor of the Temples; and orders have been sent down from him so lately as Charles the Second's time, for the Regulation of them, which were brought in great form by the Lord Chancellor and twelve Judges, and signed by them.
The Discipline of these Societies was formerly, till within these eighty years, very strict. The Students appeared, upon all occasions, and in all places, in their proper habits; and for neglecting to appear in such habit, or for want of decency in it, they were punished by being put two years backward in their standing. This habit was discontinued, because the Templars having been guilty of riots in some parts of the town, being known by their habits to be such, a reproach was thereby reflected on the Society, for want of discipline.
Commons.—Till there was a relaxation of discipline, the Commons were continued in the Vacation as well as in the Terms; and the Members obliged to attend, upon severe penalties for neglect of it. The Barristers, though they were called to their degree, were not admitted to practise, but by special leave from the Judges, till three years after their call, during which their attendance to Commons, both in Term and Vacation, was not to be compounded for, or dispensed with.
The Law Societies were, at first, under one general regulation and establishment, till they branched out, and divided, as it were, into Colonies. The Societies of each Temple are very zealous in contending for the Antiquity of their Society.
The Society of the Middle Temple must now be very rich; and it consists in money, they having no real estate. I have been assured, that the certain yearly expences of it, exclusive of repairs, amounts to a considerable sum.