Inner Temple. He was born at Holdenby, in Northamptonshire, in the year 1540. When about fifteen or sixteen years of age, he entered, as a gentleman commoner, at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford; and was admitted in the Inner Temple on the 26th of May, 1560. The year of his call to the bar is uncertain, as no book is preserved in the Inner Temple in which calls are registered prior to 1567; but he never was a reader or bencher.* In the year after his admission, we find him 'Master of the Game,' in the celebrated Christmas revels, in which Leicester (then Lord Dudley), was constable and marshal, referred to in a preceding chapter. Hatton appears to have attracted the notice of the queen, and to have received the appointment of gentleman pensioner, somewhere about June, 1564; and, according to the popular account, which appears to be substantially correct, Hatton "came to court by the galliard, for he came thither as a gentleman of the Inns of Court, in a masque, and for his activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into favour with the queen." In 1568, Hatton was one of the gentlemen of the Inner Temple, who composed a tragedy, called Tancred and Gismund, which was acted before Queen Elizabeth; the fourth act being from his pen. In the edition of this play, in the Garrick collection,† the names of the contributors are thus subscribed:-Hen. No. * See the 'Life and Times of Hatton,' by Sir Harris Nicolas, Barrister, of the Inner Temple. + Mus. Brit. R (Henry Noel), Ch. Hat. (Christopher Hatton), R. W. (Robert Wilmot), G. All., and Rod. Staff.— "His bushy beard and shoe-strings green, His high-crowned hat and satin doublet, Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it." Elizabeth's partiality for the handsome young Templar at length raised him to the woolsack; and, though he had no pretensions to legal learning, we are assured that his decisions were generally just and impartial, and that his behaviour was modest and sensible. He was chosen by the University of Oxford as their chancellor, and he seems to have been noted for "his singular bounty to students of learning." Sir Christopher Hatton died at his house, at Ely Place, Holborn, 20 Nov., 1591, and was buried with great state in St. Paul's Cathedral. Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, and the Earl of Dorset, the author of the masque, Ferrex and Porrex, already noticed, and successor to Lord Burghley as Lord High Treasurer,-an office which he held till his death, which happened on the 19th of April, 1608,was a member of this society, having been admitted A. D. 1587. He was interred in Westminster Abbey He was the founder of the noble family of the Dorsets, being, as Walpole expresses it, "the patriarch of a race of genius and wit." Sackville was the author of the 'Mirroir of Magistrates,' a poem which discovers considerable powers of versification and origi * * Ex Regist. Inner Temple. nality of thought. Spenser inscribes a sonnet to him, describing him as one "Whose learned muse hath writ her own record In golden verse, worthy immortal fame." Francis Beaumont, the poet, was the son of a barrister of the Inner Temple, who, after filling the office of reader of this house, was constituted a Justice The The younger Beau of the Court of Common Pleas. mont was admitted a gentleman commoner of Broadgate Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, when he was ten years old, and afterwards became a student in the Inner Temple. He died A.D. 1615, before he was thirty years of age, and was buried in the entrance of St. Benedict's chapel, Westminster Abbey: 66 Keep well this pawn, thou marble chest ; For while this jewel here is set, Sir Edmund Anderson, a younger son of a Scottish family settled in Lincolnshire, after studying at Lincoln College, Oxford, applied himself to the study of the law in the Inner Temple. In 9 Eliz. he was reader of this house, and in 16 Eliz. double reader. In 19 Eliz. he was called to the degree of serjeant-atlaw, and in 21 Eliz. was constituted queen's serjeant. In 1582 he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and in the following year received the honour of knighthood. Anderson held this office till he died in the year 1605. He was accounted a scourge by the Puritans, who often felt his rigour. It is recorded of him that when Secretary Davison was sentenced in the Star Chamber for his conduct touching the death of Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Chief Justice Anderson said, "that therein he had done justum non juste, and so acquitting of all malice, censured him for his indiscretion." Anderson was the author of Reports' and 'Judgements.' Sir George Crook, the author of the well known Reports, "From which the sages who expound Crok. Car. Crok. Jack. and Crok. Eliz.," was called to the bar by this society. He was autumn reader of the Inner Temple 41 Eliz. and double reader 15 Jac. Six years afterwards he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and advanced to the dignity of king's serjeant. In the fourth year of the reign of King Charles I. he was constituted a Justice of the King's Bench. Sir George Crook, both publicly in Westminster Hall, and privately when his opinion was required by the king, condemned ship money as illegal. "The countryman's wit will not be soon forgotten," says Fuller, "that ship money may be gotten by Hook but not by Crook." This upright judge died in Oxfordshire A. D. 1641, in the eighty-second year of his age. The Inner Temple claims the distinguished honour of reckoning among its students Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, whose In stitutes' and 'Reports' must for ever remain as monuments of his vast legal learning and unwearied industry. Sir Edward Coke was born on the 1st of February, 1551-2. After studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered, according to the practice of the time, Clifford's Inn, one of the houses of Chancery subordinate to the Inner Temple. From thence he removed to the Inner Temple, where he was admitted on the 24th of April, 1572. On the 20th of April, 1578, he was called to the bar. Soon after his call he was chosen reader of Lyon's Inn, and, his reputation rapidly spreading, his practice became exceedingly large. It will be unnecessary here to trace his eventful history: it will be enough to say that he filled the office of reader of this house with great distinction, and that from the dignity of a bencher he rose by successive steps till he attained the office of Lord Chief Justice. Sir Edward Coke, throughout his life, took a lively interest in the Inns of Court; and in his works zealously maintained their honour, and by example endeavoured to promote sound learning within their walls. 6 John Selden, that famous and learned antiquarie,' as he is described on the title-page of the edition * of Fortescue's 'De Laudibus' illustrated by his notes, entered this society on the 2nd June, 1604, having previously studied at Hert Hall, Oxford, and Clifford's Inn. Wood describes Selden as a great philosopher, antiquary, herald, linguist, and statesman,' and in his life-time he was styled the dictator of learning to the * 1672. |