The grant of Magna Charta by King John, in response to the demand of the
Barons at Runnymede, gave birth to the Bar in its modern character.
Articles 17 and 18 of that instrument provided that Common Pleas should
not follow the court of the King, but should be held in a certain place,
and that trials upon certain writs should not be taken outside of their
proper counties. It provided further that the King or the Chief Justice
should send two justiciaries into each county, four times in the year,
to hold certain assizes within the county, with four knights of the
county, chosen by it, on the day, and at the place appointed. The 45th
article promised that the King would not make Justiciaries, Constables,
or Bailiffs excepting of such as knew the laws of the land and were well
disposed to observe them. The result of this provision by which Common
pleas courts came to be held at Westminster, while regular assizes were
held in the counties, was the establishment of the four Inns of Court,
so-called, Lincoln's Inn, the Inner and the Middle Temple, and Gray's
Inn, together with a number of others known as Chancery Inns, which
have of late years disappeared.
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