Cambridge Studies in English Legal History: The Common Lawyers of Pre-Reformation England: Thomas Kebell: A Case Study

The English common lawyers wielded their greatest influence in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with names like Fortescue, Littleton and More. In these years they were more than the only organized lay profession: in the infancy of statute, they, more than anyone, shaped and changed the law; they were the managerial elite of the country; they were the single most dynamic group in society. This book is a study of their formative impact on the whole of English life. Part I examines the legal profession, its position, recruitment, training and career structure, taking as an example the career of Thomas Kebell, a serjeant at-law from Leicestershire, for whom documentation is unusually complete. Part II analyses legal practice: how the lawyer acquired and kept clients, his relationship with them, the pattern of employment, the nature of practice as revealed in the year books, and the attitudes and approaches of the lawyer to the law. The third part considers the impact of the lawyers on substantive law and legal organization.

Part I. The Legal Profession: 1. The common lawyers in pre-Reformation England; 2. Social origins: the Kebells of Rearsby; 3. Training at the inns of court; 4. Professional advancement; Part II. Legal Practice: 5. The foundations of a legal practice; 6. The lawyer and his clients; 7. The lawyer and the year books; 8. Thomas Kebell as an advocate; Part III. The Lawyers and the Law: 9. The legal system; 10. The crown and the profession; 11. The interest of the state; 12. A changing community; Part IV. The Profession and Society: 13. The rewards of the profession: fees and payments; 14. The rewards of the profession: income and morality; 15. The rewards of the profession: the estates of Thomas Kebell; 16. The rewards of the profession: Humberstone Manor; 17. Social mobility: the Kebells of Humberstone; 18. Thomas Kebell and the pre-Reformation legal profession.