Page:The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Volume 1, Admissions from A.D. 1420 to A.D. 1799.djvu/9



THE Society of Lincoln's Inn, having resolved to print such portions of their Records as appear to be of permanent interest, have begun with the publication of Admissions to the Society from the earliest date for which materials are available. The first records of the internal administration of the Society are to be found in its Black Books. These are a series of volumes containing Minutes of the Proceedings of the Governing Body, from 1422 to the present time, in considerable detail. Among those Minutes are entries from which can be gleaned the names of those who were Members of the Society just before and in the year 1420, and the names of those subsequently admitted down to the year 1573 ; but in 1574 it was ordered by the Bench that a Calendar be made of those thereafter admitted to the Society, and thereupon the first volume of what is now known as the Register of Admissions was begun. It is, however, worth notice that the order of the Bench was made on June 21st, 1574, and was carried out by beginning the entries on November 2nd, 1573, the date of the commencement, then as now, of the legal year. For a short period after 1573 the Black Books and the Register both contain records of admissions, but, with that exception, from 1573 the authority for the lists of admissions in this publication is the Register of Admissions.

Full discussion of the Black Books may be reserved until the Extracts from them which are in course of preparation, are published ; but an attempt must be made here to determine whether the names which are found in the early pages of the first volume of the Black Books are the names of the first or original members of the Society.

The character of this volume requires a few words. It is a paper book which has been rebound from time to time ; the greater part of the entries are written in Latin, with occasional entries and memoranda in English and French. The first English entry is on fo. 20, and is an order relating to the Revels to be thenceforth kept in the Inn, dated on the feast of "Saynt Arkenewold the IXth year off Kyng Harry the vjto" — that is April 30th, 1431.

The first seven folios are taken up by a list of names of Members of the Inn, to which additions have been subsequently made in different handwritings, and to most of these names are appended the names of two manucaptores or sureties. The principals in the original list, ninety-six in number, seem, from later entries to have been at the time when each of their names first appears, full Members of the Society ; and it was then the custom for each Member, so long as he continued a Member, to be bound with sureties for the payment of commons and dues. Subsequently (folio 8), in 1422, appears the first dated entry of a list of those "assigned to continue the Christmas Vacation in the Inn." The rule of the Inn was that each Member (socius) of the Society should, before he could attain the full privileges of a member of the Fellowship, keep the vacations of Easter, Autumn and Christmas for three years, making nine vacations in all ;