Clifford's Inn was an Inn of Chancery which is located between Fetter Lane and Clifford's Inn Passage, leading off Fleet Street, EC4.
Founded in 1344 and dissolved in 1903, most of the original structure was demolished in 1934. It was both the first Inn of Chancery to be founded and the last to be demolished.
Through the ages, Clifford's Inn was engaged in educating students, such as Edward Coke and John Selden to name but two from hundreds of others, in Jurisprudence.
Having long-served its purpose as an institute of legal education, in 1903, its members unanimously voted to dissolve its incorporation and donated the remaining funds to the Attorney General for England and Wales.
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It is believed that the Inns of Chancery evolved in tandem with the Inns of Court. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Law was taught in the City of London primarily by the clergy.
However, during the 13th century two events happened which diminished this form of legal education: firstly, a decree by Henry III of England stating that no institutes of legal education could exist in the City of London; and, secondly, a Papal Bull prohibiting clergy from teaching Law in the City.[1]
Consequently, the system of legal education dispersed, with lawyers instead settling immediately outside the City of London boundaries, but as close as possible to Westminster Hall where the Magna Carta had been provided for, or established, as a permanent Court.
The neighbourhood of what had been the small village of Holborn then developed into habitations, ie "hostels" or "inns", which thereafter took their name from the relevant landlord of the Inn.[1]
The Inns of Chancery sprang up around the Inns of Court, and took their name and original purpose from the Chancery Clerks, who used the buildings as accommodation and places of work, from where they could draft their writs.[2] Since the Middle Ages, education at one of the Inns of Chancery has been the customary step towards becoming a barrister. A student or pupil would first join one of the Inns of Chancery, where he would be taught in the form of moots and rote learning.[3]
The land which Clifford's Inn is situated was granted to the third Baron de Clifford on 24 February 1310, and it is from this family that the Inn took its name. After the third Baron's death in 1314 the land passed to his brother, Robert; following his death in 1344 his widow granted the land to students of the law for £10 a year. Thus Clifford's Inn is the first recorded Inn of Chancery,[4] although whether it immediately became a formal body is not recorded. The Society of Clifford's Inn formally purchased its freehold on 29 March 1618 from its then owner Francis Clifford, 4th Earl of Cumberland for the sum of £600, with the proviso that it should pay him £4 a year rent for some areas of the land and that it keep a set of chambers available for those barristers he selected.[5] Whilst the earldom became extinct in the next generation, Clifford's daughter married out of the family and her rights and privileges remained with her descendants until 1800.[6]
In 1903 it was decided that the Inn was now superfluous to requirements, so its members unanimously agreed to dissolve the society, selling the buildings and giving its residue to the Attorney General for England and Wales, the nominal head of the English Bar, to do with it as it so wished.[7] The auction of the assets took place on 14 May of that year (i.e. 1903), and the Inn was sold "at a ridiculously low price", in the sum of £100,000.[8] The buildings of the Inn were later demolished in 1934, except for its gatehouse (at Clifford's Inn Passage) and which survives till this day. This gatehouse is thought to have been designed by Decimus Burton, who worked at the Inn in 1830-4[9]
Clifford's Inn's coat of arms was a modified version of the Clifford family arms, namely: "chequé or and azure, a fess gules, a bordure, bezantée, of the third."[10] The Inn was ruled by the Council, who was led by the Principal. As well as the Principal the Council consisted of twelve barristers, all elected by the Inn members, who had certain rights; they could hold chambers wherever they wanted, and sat at a separate upper table when dining. The Principal was elected by the entire Inn's membership and was tasked with overseeing its day-to-day running and supervising the Inn's servants. His rights included the right to any one of eighteen sets of chambers that he wanted and an allowance for beer.[6] Principals were initially elected for life, but following an Order dated 15 June 1668 he faced re-election every three years.[6] It became custom, however, to re-elect the Principal unless he was infirm or had died in office, and as a result between 1668 and the death of the last Principal in 1890, only 21 men held this position.[11]
Noted students at Clifford's Inn include Sir Edward Coke and John Selden.[12][13] Although generally considered a dependent of the Inner Temple, its members always maintained that they were separate.[10] As a note of that "independence" it became custom for the Inner Temple to send them a message once a year, which would be received but deliberately not replied to![10]
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