The Old Temple was in Holborn, and the property extended from the north-eastern corner of Chancery Lane to Staple Inn, and possibly further. The Knights Templars sold it about the year 1160 to the Bishopric of Lincoln. Their round chapel, of which the round of the present Temple Church is a replica, still retained its chaplain in 1222, and its ruins were still existing in Queen Elizabeth's reign, quite close to Staple Inn. In 1547 the bishopric had to resign the property to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Great Chamberlain of England, afterwards Earl of Northumberland,[89] who conveyed it in 1549 to the Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. The eastern part of the property was built upon in 1580 by William Roper, of Lincoln's Inn; and in 1638 the then Earl received licence to demolish his house to make way for eighty smaller houses and one tavern. The rotunda of the Birkbeck Bank occupies the site of what was once Northumberland Court, and Southampton Buildings now cover the grounds of Southampton House.
On the west side of Chancery Lane, or New Street, Ralph Nevill, the Bishop of Chichester, possessed a house which became part of the third and present Lincoln's Inn; but his garden was on the east side of Chancery Lane, and was bounded on the north by a ditch, known in 1262 as Chanceleresdich. This ditch separated his garden from certain property, occupied one hundred years later by serjeants and apprentices of the law, which may be conveniently designated the second Lincoln's Inn. It was situated to the east of Staple Inn, where now is Furnival Street.
Dugdale describes Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, as a person well affected to the study of the laws, who had gathered around him numbers of students. This statement is probably correct, for in 1292, only six years after the earl had bought the houses of the Black Friars, Edward I. urges the same course upon his Chief Justice of Common Pleas. He enjoins John Metyngham and his fellows, et sociis suis, to provide a certain number of every county of the better and more legally and liberally learned for the purpose of being trained to practise in the Courts.[90] If the Earl of Lincoln had already brought students to London, we may be fairly certain that many of them would have come from his lands in Lincolnshire and North Wales. The second Lincoln's Inn appears to have been much connected with the one, and Davy's Inn with the other.
In the year 1252, Adam de Basing, then Mayor of London, held a block of land, about 100 yards wide by 220 yards long, on the east side of Staple Inn, part of which was leased to Roger the Smith, and part to Geoffrey the Wheelwright. In 1269, Simon Faber, son and heir of Roger, granted a portion of it, lying next to Staple Inn, to Simon the Marshall, "being in breadth at the King's street on the north 12 ells of the iron ell of King Henry," and 48 ells long, "for the yearly rent, to Thomas, son of Adam de Basing, and his heirs, of 10s. sterling, and to Simon Faber and his heirs one rose at the feast of the nativity of St. John Baptist."[91] But Simon the Marshall accepted this grant only to make a feoffment of the property at once to Gilbert de Lincoln, known also as Gilbert de Haliwell and as Gilbert Proudphoet, a dealer in parchment, parmentarius, who held it for thirty-three years; his wife, after his death, holding it for another five. In 1307, William le Brewere and William atte Gate, executors of Gilbert de Lincoln, sold the property, with the buildings thereon, to John de Dodyngton, variously described as parmentarius and skinner, pelliparius, for the sum of one hundred shillings.[92] Within five years, in 1312, John de Dodyngton transferred it to Robert le Hende de Worcester, also parmentarius and pelliparius, who held it for twenty years; from whom it descended in the female line to James Gylot, who in 1369 enfeoffed of it Roger de Podyngton, and Joan his wife, "to hold to Roger and Joan, and the heirs and assigns of Roger, of the chief lords of that fee by the accustomed services for ever."[93] In the same year Roger and Joan "gave" it to Walter de Barton, citizen and cordwainer of London, to hold under the same conditions, in whose possession it remained for seventeen years, when he granted a feoffment of it to Robert de Cherlton, Chief Justice of Common Pleas, Richard the Mauncyple, John Sutton, John Aldurley, and John Parkere,[94] who in the same year transferred it to the Abbot of Malmesbury. By an Inquisition, ad quod damnum, held in May of that year, for the purpose of determining whether the gift might be legally made, it was stated that the property was held in burgage—i.e., town tenure—of the King, and there are no means between the King and the said Robert, etc.[95] The abbot allowed Walter de Barton and his successors to remain in occupation, the monastery receiving the rents.
Though for thirty-three years it had been held by Gilbert de Lincoln, this property did not form a part of what was called Lyncolnesynne. It was partly a brewery and partly a hostel, and remained such until the reign of Henry VIII.
The property east and south of this was, in the year 1262, held by Geoffrey the Wheelwright. That part of it lying east had been leased direct from Adam Basing; it extended from the King's Street to the "land of the Conversi," and was 12 ells in width at the north, 10 ells in width at the south, and 220 yards long. That part lying south had been granted to Geoffrey by Simon Faber; it contained
"in length from the ditch called Chaunceleresdich towards the Church of the Conversi on the south as far as Simon's own curtilage on the north 31 perches of the perch of Henry III., whereof each perch contains 16½ feet,"
and in width 11 ells of the said King;
"to hold to Geoffrey, his heirs and assigns, of Adam Basing, for 2s. 8d. rent paid in the name of Simon, his heirs and assigns, and one rose at the nativity of S. John Baptist to Simon and his heirs."[96]