Clement's Inn

This inn was neither "a court of law" nor "an inn of court," but "an inn of chancery;" according to the distinction drawn by Sir John Fortescue, in his *De Laudibus Legum Angliæ*, chap. xlix., written between 1460 and 1470. The evidence of its antiquity is traced back to an earlier date than 1486; for, according to Dugdale (*Orig.*, p. 187.), in a *Record of Michaelmas*, 19 *Edward IV*., 1479, it is spoken of as then, and *diu ante*, an Inn "hominum Curiæ Legis temporalis, necnon hominum Consiliariorum ejusdem Legis." The early history of the Inns of Court and Chancery is involved in the great…