It is clear, then, that the difference between the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery was recognised in 1465, and it is also certain that one of those four Inns of Court was that to which he himself had belonged, namely, Lincoln's Inn. The others were undoubtedly Gray's Inn and the Inner and Middle Temples. We have seen that in 1387 Lincoln's Inn in Holborn was held directly of the King; we shall find that the other Inns of Court came to be similarly held.
In the year 1294, Reginald de Grey, a member of one of the leading administrative and legal families, was Justiciar of Chester. He received in that year from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a feoffment of the manor of Portpool, which they had received in mortmain from Richard de Chyggewell, alderman and mercer of London. It is doubtful whether Reginald de Grey lived here; it is more likely that he acquired the property for the training of his clerks, having found himself under much the same necessity as his contemporaries, Sir John de Metyngham and the Earl of Lincoln. In 1296 he was in association with Prince Edward, as one of the Regency, during the expedition of Edward I. to Flanders. In 1307 he died, when an inquisition was taken, at which the jurors reported that Reginald le Grey was seized at Purtepol of a certain messuage with gardens and one dove house worth 10s. a year, 30 acres of arable land worth 20s. a year, price 8d. the acre, and a certain windmill worth 20s. all held of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.[109]
In 1316 his successor, Sir John de Grey, created a rent-charge on the property in favour of the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, to provide a chaplain to perform daily service in the chapel of the manor; and at an inquisition held in that year, at the Stone Cross in the parish of the Blessed Mary at the Strand, to know whether it would be to the King's damage if he granted the necessary permission, the jurors reported that the property was
"holden of Robert de Chiggewelle by the service of rendering to the same Robert one rose yearly, and the same Robert holds the tenements, together with others, of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the said Dean and Chapter hold the same of the king in pure and perpetual alms."[110]
The grandson of Sir John de Grey, another Reginald, died in 1370, and was succeeded by Henry de Grey, under whom the first feoffment-in-trust of this property that we know of took place. For when he died in 1397 it was found by inquisition that Henry, Lord Grey de Wilton, held no land in Middlesex, because by deed he had enfeoffed Roger Harecourt, Justice for Co. Derby; John de Broughton, Escheator for the counties of Bucks and Beds; William Danbury; John Boner, rector of the Church of Shirland (one of the manors of the De Greys), and others, of his manor of Portpoole, called Gray's Inn.[111] This was probably in 1371. Similar feoffments-in-trust were made by successive Lords de Grey until 1506, when Edmund, Lord de Grey of Wilton, sold the manor to Hugh Denys, verger of Windsor Castle, and others, the said Hugh's feoffees.[112]
Hugh Denys died in 1511, and by his will he desired that all such persons as had been feoffed of his manor of "Greysynte" should be seized of it to the use of his heirs, "until such time as the Prior and Convent of the Charterhouse at Shene, in the county of Surrey, have obtained of the king's grace sufficient licence for the amortisement" of the manor to them.[113] And five years later the necessary authority was granted, the manor being described as having escheated to the King, "by the death of Robert de Chiggewell without an heir," to be held to the annual value of £6 13s. 4d.
At the dissolution of the monasteries the Benchers of Gray's Inn had to pay this amount to the Crown, instead of to the Charterhouse at Shene. Charles II. sold the rent to Sir Philip Matthews, and in 1733 the Benchers purchased it from parties deriving title from his co-heirs.[114] The hall of Gray's Inn dates from 1560; the chapel is of unknown, but of ancient date.
The New Temple was in occupation by the Knights Templars before 1186. They were bankers for the King, who sometimes lodged there. Their chapel was the muniment house of the rolls of chancery; there the treasure and regalia were stored; and there Parliaments and Courts, both criminal and civil, were held. Naturally, they needed their own fratres servientes, who were provided with food "at the clerks' tables," and yearly robes at Christmas "of the suit of the free servants of the house."[115]
The chief lord was the Earl of Lancaster. But when the Knighthood was suppressed, in 1308, their clerks were pensioned, and Edward II. granted the property to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, he receiving the issues, but holding the manor of the lord, to whom, however, he made a "quit claim" in October, 1314, the Pope having granted the possessions of the Templars to the Knights of St. John. Upon the execution and attainder of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1322, the King gave the lordship to Hugh le Despencer, who also obtained from the Prior of St. John's a feoffment of the houses and appurtenances,[116] and on the attainder of Hugh le Despencer, in 1327, the lordship and also the ferm came into the hands of Edward III., who put William de Langeford, clerk of the Prior and "chief servitor of the King's religion," in charge as "fermor" at £24 yearly. He repaired the old houses for the King's clerks to occupy;[117] and for some years following litigants coming into chancery would take their oaths in the Temple Church; though sometimes at this period they would attend in the church of St. Andrew in Holborn, Thomas de Cotyngham, one of the Chancery clerks, then being rector there. It was William de Langeford who, in 1335, took a lease from the mayor and commonalty of "a piece of land" without Newgate "for making a hall and three fit chambers at his own expense, for the sessions of the Justices appointed to deliver Newgate Gaol."[118] This early Sessions House is described as being in the King's high street, on the way towards Holebourne. It would have stood at the north-west corner of the present Newgate Street.