Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

yers, the society had buildings with rooms where its members lived and worked, and a large library. It was also a lower venue for determinations and hearings, short of the society's convening in the

Court of the Arches The Arches Court, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court. It takes its name from the street-level ...

Admiralty Court Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all maritime contracts, torts, injuries, and offences. Admiralty courts in the United Kingdom England and Wales Scotland The Scottish court's earliest ...

, which frequently consisted of judges with other responsibilities and from which further appeal lay. The society used

St Benet's, Paul's Wharf The Church of St Benet Paul's Wharf is a Welsh Anglican church in the City of London. Since 1556, it has also been the official church of the College of Arms in which many officers of arms have been buried. In 1666 it was destroyed in the Grea ...

as its church.

The civil law in England

While the English common law, unlike the legal systems on the European continent, developed mostly independently from Roman law, some specialised English courts applied the Roman-based civil law. This is true of the

ecclesiastical court An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than be ...

s, whose practice even after the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and po ...

continued to be based on the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, and also of the admiralty courts. Until reforms in the 19th century, the ecclesiastical courts performed functions equivalent to today's probate courts, subject then to appeals to separate courts ( of equity), and

family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

s (however divorce was much harder to achieve). The advocates practising in these courts had been trained in canon law (before the Reformation) and in Roman law (after) at the university colleges of Oxford and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

. This profession was split, like its common law counterpart. The advocates (the doctors) were akin to

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

s in the common-law courts, while the proctors were akin to attorneys in the common-law courts or to

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

s in the courts of equity. According to some accounts, the society of Doctors' Commons was formed in 1511 by Richard Blodwell, Dean of the Arches. He served nine years. According to others, it existed in the previous century. The society's buildings, acquired in 1567, were near

St. Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Gr ...

at Paternoster Row, and remained in use for many years; however, in the society's final decades nearby buildings in Knightrider Street were used instead. In 1768 the society was incorporated. It took official name of the "College of Doctors of Law exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts". The college still consisted of its president (the

Dean of Arches The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribun ...

) and of those doctors of law who, having taken that degree in the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and having been admitted advocates in pursuance of the rescript of the

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Ju ...

, were elected "fellows" in the manner prescribed by the charter. There were also attached to the college thirty-four "

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: * In law, a proctor is a historical class of lawye ...

s", whose duties were analogous to those of

Disestablishment

In the nineteenth century, the institution of Doctors' Commons and its members were looked upon as old-fashioned and slightly ridiculous. As anticipation of an impending abolition grew, there was a reluctance among the society to admit new fellows as this would dilute the proceeds of any winding up of the property. Dr

Thomas Hutchinson Tristram Thomas Hutchinson Tristram KC DCL (24 September 1825 – 8 March 1912) was an English lawyer. Tristram was the second son of the Rev. Henry Baker Tristram, vicar of Eglingham; the geologist and naturalist Henry Baker Tristram was his elder b ...

was the last to be admitted. The Court of Probate Act 1857 abolished the testamentary jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts and gave common lawyers the right to practise in fields which before had been the exclusive domain of civilians (doctors and proctors), while offering in practice scant compensation of the reverse also being permitted. Critically, the Act also made it lawful for the Doctors' Commons, by a vote of the majority of its fellows, to dissolve itself and surrender its Royal Charter, the proceeds of dissolution to be shared among the members. The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 created a new divorce court in which regular

s or doctors of Doctors' Commons could . The High Court of Admiralty Act 1859 liberalised rights of audience in the

. This left to Doctors' Commons only the established church's Court of Arches. A motion to dissolve the society was entered on 13 January 1858 setting the path towards the last meeting which was the end of Trinity Term, 10 July 1865. The fellows rather than surrender their offices and charter resolved for its property to be sold and no appointments to any vacant post could be made. The buildings of Doctors' Commons were sold in 1865 and demolished soon after. The site is now largely occupied by the

Faraday Building The Faraday Building is in the south-west of the City of London. It was originally built as a sorting office for the General Post Office. In 1902 it was converted to a telephone exchange serving sections of London, and underwent several capaci ...

.Simon Bradley (ed.), Nikolaus Pevsner, ''London. 1. The City of London'' (London: Penguin Books, 1997) p. 343. The Court of Arches gave right of audience to barristers in 1867.''Mouncey v. Robinson'' (1867) 37 L. J. Ecc. 8 The society perished with the death of its last fellow Tristram in 1912.

In Victorian literature

Satirical descriptions of Doctors' Commons can be found in Charles Dickens's '' Sketches by Boz'' and in '' David Copperfield'' in which Dickens called it a "cosey, dosey, old-fashioned, time-forgotten, sleepy-headed little family party."'' David Copperfield'' (1849), Charles Dickens, chapter 23. In the same-era novel '' The Moonstone'' by Wilkie Collins, the

Gray's Inn Square The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

Mathew Bruff notes, "I shall perhaps do well if I explain in this place, for the benefit of the few people who don't know it already, that the law allows all wills to be examined at Doctor's Commons by anybody who applies, on payment of a

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

fee." Doctors' Commons is mentioned anachronistically in the much later short story '' The Adventure of the Speckled Band'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

apparently obtains some information there about the will of the wife of Dr Grimesby Roylott of Stoke Moran.

References

Bibliography

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External links