The origins and development of professional legal attorneys by reference to thirteenth-century eyre proceedings

In exploring the origins and development of professional legal attorneys by reference to thirteenth-century eyre proceedings, it is firstly argued that attorneyship, as it existed circa 1200, originated in the coalescence of three separate traditions based, respectively, on putting in place, attornment and procuration. Evidence for this proposition lies in the remarkably diverse vocabulary employed by contemporary scribes, clerks and commentators in describing the activity of attorneyship. Simple attorneyship, the basic core function of which was physical substitution, is then shown to have accommodated over the course of some 60 years legal attorneyship with its numerous duties and capacity for professionalisation. This process is charted by reference to the activities of attorneys at eight selected eyres held between 1218-19 and 1281. Themes and issues discussed include the circumstances surrounding the recorded presence of attorneys in court; outcomes achieved; the several motivations of litigants in appointing attorneys in increasing numbers; and the emergence of men displaying lawyerly qualities and characteristics including those of competence, articulacy, literacy, administrative skill and legal expertise. The activities of professional legal attorneys at a series of eyres in the 1280s are next examined. Issues addressed include how many of them there were; their identities; where they practised; for whom they acted; what they did; how they organised themselves; and the extent to which they associated. Finally, it is argued that the reason for professionalisation and the means of its emergence lie in the concept of supply and demand. The respective contributions of secular men and women, husbands and wives litigating together, and of ecclesiasts in the creation, firstly, of a critical mass of attorneys able to accommodate a minority of legal professionals and, secondly, of a demand for expert services supplied by those professionals, are analysed, as are the sources of the expertise demanded.