Lincoln's Inn - Structure and Governance

Structure and Governance

Lincoln's Inn had no constitution or fundamental form of governance, and legislation was divided into two types; statutes, passed by the Governors (see below) and ordinances made by the Society (all the Fellows of the Inn). A third method used was to have individual Fellows promise to fulfil a certain duty; the first known example is from 1435, and starts "Here folowen certaynes covenantes and promyses made to the feloweshippe of Lyncoll' Yne". The increase of the size of the Inn led to a loss of its partially democratic nature, first in 1494 when it was decided that only Benchers and Governors should have a voice in calling people to the Bar and, by the end of the sixteenth century, Benchers were almost entirely in control.

Admissions were recorded in the black books and divided into two categories: Clerks (Clerici) who were admitted to Clerks' Commons; and Fellows Socii who were admitted to Fellows' Commons. All entrants swore the same oath regardless of category, and some Fellows were permitted to dine in Clerks' Commons as it cost less, making it difficult for academics to sometimes distinguish between the two – Walker, the editor of the Black Books, maintains that the two categories were one and the same. During the 15th century, the Fellows began to be called Masters, and the gap between Masters and Clerks gradually grew, with an order in 1505 that no Master was to be found in Clerks' Commons unless studying a point of law there. By 1466, the Fellows were divided into Benchers, those "at the Bar" (ad barram, also known as "utter barristers" or simply "barristers"), and those "not at the Bar" (extra barram). By 1502, the extra barram Fellows were being referred to as "inner barristers", in contrast to the "utter" or "outer" barristers.