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Legal Education in Late Medieval England: How Did Provincial Scriveners Learn Their Law?

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Legal Literacy in Premodern European Societies

Part of the book series: World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence ((WHCCV))

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Abstract

Despite representing an understudied group in terms of the history of the legal profession, as legal scribes, provincial scriveners made significant contributions to medieval England’s legal and scribal culture. This chapter identifies some of the many scriveners who worked beyond the control of London’s Scriveners’ Company to examine the various avenues and opportunities available to them to acquire the legal and linguistic literacy required to practise the law at this time. It evaluates how these laymen “learned” their law, passed on their knowledge, and forged their own unique career paths in the countryside. Set against the backdrop of an increasingly “professional” legal profession, this chapter presents evidence to support the theory that scrivening was learned and practised by a largely self-sufficient and self-sustaining community of scribes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Council of Europe (1950), sections 3 (a) and 3 (e).

  2. 2.

    For influential works on textual cultures, see: Ong (2002); Stock (1997); Stock (1986); Stock (1984). The work of Michael Clanchy (1979) addresses literacy in textual cultures in greater detail.

  3. 3.

    Glenn (1993), p. 497.

  4. 4.

    Robertson (1806), pp. 52–53.

  5. 5.

    Robertson (1806), pp. 21–22. On page 76, Robertson goes on to describe the clergy as the only men “in the ages of darkness” who were “accustomed to read, to enquire, and to reason.”

  6. 6.

    Robertson (1806), p. 56.

  7. 7.

    For more on legal literacy, also see Mia Korpiola’s introduction to this volume.

  8. 8.

    Robertson (1806), p. 82.

  9. 9.

    Andrew Butcher considered the role of medieval town clerks as “cultural mediators and creators” in his work, Butcher (2004), p. 157.

  10. 10.

    On scriveners, see, for example, Ramsay (1991); Ramsay (2009); Bevan (2013).

  11. 11.

    Clanchy (1979).

  12. 12.

    Rose (1998), p. 354. This ordinance marks the beginning of a specialisation within the legal profession. See Tucker (2006).

  13. 13.

    Riley (1860), pp. 280–281. The pleaders that were criticised in the London ordinance are the predecessors of the serjeants-at-law who eventually held a monopoly on pleading in the central courts.

  14. 14.

    Riley (1860), p. 280: “pur ceo qe soventefoiz par ascunes qi countours se firent, qi lour mestier ne savoient, ne ne eurent apris.”

  15. 15.

    Riley (1860), p. 280: “itel ascune foitz qi bone langage ne savoit parler.”

  16. 16.

    Steer (1968), p. 2.

  17. 17.

    For more on the professionalisation of law, see Musson (2001), pp. 36–83.

  18. 18.

    See, for example, Baker (1990); Baker (1999); Brand (1987); Clark (1987); Richter (1986).

  19. 19.

    Baker (1999), p. 160; Richardson (1939), p. 458.

  20. 20.

    Baker (1999), p. 160.

  21. 21.

    Paul Brand’s research on the instruction of lawyers in London before the Inns of Court and during the early years of their foundation can be found in his 1987 article on the education of lawyers in England. For more on the Inns and the role they played in formalising English legal education, see Baker (1990).

  22. 22.

    Such treatises were, in particular, Seneschaucy, the Anonymous Husbandry, and Robert Grosseteste’s Rules. For this genre, a list of these manuscripts and their owners, see Oschinsky (1956), p. 298.

  23. 23.

    Ramsay (1991), p. 124.

  24. 24.

    Baker (1999), p. 166.

  25. 25.

    A useful parallel can be found in the teaching of grammar school masters who gave their students silly phrases to practise their translations.

  26. 26.

    Sir Ralph de Hengham , chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench (1274–1290) and later of the Court of Common Pleas (1301–1309), provided law students with collections of his lectures , referred to as Hengham Parva and Hengham Magna. Hengham is reputed to have been pedagogically inclined to explain relevant points of law to attending law students and apprentices after his cases. On Hengham , see Brand (2004).

  27. 27.

    Baker (1999), pp. 170–171. The Year Books were private collections of law reports, reports of pleas, and litigation at the Court of the Common Pleas in Westminster. They became important for establishing precedents in the common law system. A continuous series of Year Books exist for 1268–1535, and such volumes were first printed in the sixteenth century.

  28. 28.

    Old Tenures is a treatise, as the name suggests, on various different land tenures and land law, written during the reign of King Edward III (r. 1327–1377).

  29. 29.

    Britton is a French-language summary of English law that was probably written around 1291–1292 and first printed in c. 1530.

  30. 30.

    Natura Brevium was another treatise dated to King Edward III’s reign, presenting and commenting on the most commonly used writs of the time, their use, and their effects.

  31. 31.

    Baker (1999), p. 170. For a brief professional biography of Pencaer, see Pollard (1966), pp. 73–74.

  32. 32.

    The Common Paper was the name given to a collection of the London scriveners’ annual records, craft regulations, and membership and apprenticeship lists beginning in 1357 and ending in 1628. See Steer (1968).

  33. 33.

    For an overview of apprenticeship as a means of introducing young men to the business side of their trades, see Lyon (1920).

  34. 34.

    “Item que nul meistre escrivein preigne apprentice pur meyndre terme que pur v ans; et que le dit apprentice soit del age de xvj ans au meyns, et qil preigne nul autre pur apprendre sinon qil soit son apprentice.” Sellers (1912), p. 56.

  35. 35.

    Seipp and Lee (2007a), 9 Hen. VI, plea 18, fol. 17b–18a.

  36. 36.

    “Meme cesty fuit retenu ove le plaintiff d’estre son apprentice pour estre un escrivener, & que le plaintiff doit luy informe a escrir per vij ans; apprentice per endenture; fesance d’apprentice est un covenan, & chaqun lie a l’auter, & l’apprentice n’est pas tenu a fair auter chose, mes cest que appertient a son mistiere, & le custome de chaqun ville ou apprentice est.”

  37. 37.

    Seipp and Lee (2007a), 9 Hen. VI, plea 18, fol. 18a.

  38. 38.

    Seipp and Lee (2007a), 9 Hen. VI, plea 18, fol. 18a: “Chaqun apprentice est le servant de son Maistre.”

  39. 39.

    Adler (1916), p. 251. It was not until 1563 that guidelines were set out regarding the terms of employment for servants, labourers, and apprentices. These can be found in the Statute of Artificers (1563).

  40. 40.

    For the text of the ordinances of York’s scriveners and its references to “artifice,” see Sellers (1912), pp. 56–57.

  41. 41.

    “Issint si un artificier acquir(e) a luy plusieurs customers que autr(e) de mesme l’art; come Scrivener, ou Schoolmaster qui ad plusieurs disciples que aut(re), p(ur) c(eo) q(ue) il e(st) plu(s) erudite, c(eo) e(st) dam(mage) a l’aut(re).” Seipp and Lee (2007b), 12 Hen. VIII, plea 13, fol. 13b.

  42. 42.

    Pegues (1956), p. 540. For the judicial duties of sheriffs up to 1307, see Morris (1968), pp. 189, 209.

  43. 43.

    Pegues (1956), pp. 540–541.

  44. 44.

    The possibility of actual links existing between sheriff’s clerks and town clerks is worthy of further investigation; however, it falls outside of the scope of this chapter. Due to the large volume of material that would need to be examined in order to identify all of the potential candidates, this would be lengthy project, but also a very valuable one.

  45. 45.

    Harte (1911), p. 1.

  46. 46.

    Harte (1911), p. 2.

  47. 47.

    Fuidge (1981), p. 334.

  48. 48.

    Mendyk (2004).

  49. 49.

    Hall (2002). Glanville’s authorship has been rejected by some authorities based on the fact that he would not have had sufficient leisure time to complete such a work. See Turner (1985), p. 33; Russell (1970), pp. 69–70. It may have been the work of William of Raleigh, who was Bracton’s mentor.

  50. 50.

    Thorne (1968–1977).

  51. 51.

    Shanks and Milsom (1963).

  52. 52.

    Turner and Plucknett (1951).

  53. 53.

    Sharpe (1889), p. 344. On Horn, see Catto (2004).

  54. 54.

    The National Archives (TNA), PRO PROB 11/2A f. 61 [24 Aug. 1403, probate granted 6 Feb. 1404/5]. For a transcript of Bount’s will, see Weaver (1901), pp. 11–14.

  55. 55.

    Wadley (1886), p. 266.

  56. 56.

    Wadley (1886), p. xii.

  57. 57.

    Baker (1999), p. 173.

  58. 58.

    Wambaugh (1903), p. 341.

  59. 59.

    Quoted in Wambaugh (1903), p. lxiii.

  60. 60.

    Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. misc. c. 66 [Commonplace book of Humphrey Newton (1466–1536), of Pownall, Cheshire, in Latin and English 15th and 16th centuries].

  61. 61.

    Youngs (2008).

  62. 62.

    Youngs (2008), p. 43.

  63. 63.

    Musson (2001), pp. 38–44.

  64. 64.

    Youngs (2008), pp. 49–50.

  65. 65.

    For more on this, see Bevan (2013), pp. 177–218.

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  1. Independent Scholar, St. Catharines, ON, Canada

    Kitrina Bevan

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  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Mia Korpiola

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Bevan, K. (2019). Legal Education in Late Medieval England: How Did Provincial Scriveners Learn Their Law?. In: Korpiola, M. (eds) Legal Literacy in Premodern European Societies. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96863-6_2

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