Six Clerks’ Office
It is possible to locate the Six Clerks’ Office on Ogilby and Morgan’s 1667 Map
[o]n the west side of Chancery Lane, south of Carey Street, outside the City Boundary, opposite the Rolls(Harben 534). The location of the original Six Clerks’ Office is now where the Law Institute stands. The office was formerly the Inn of the Prior of Nocton, but around the time that it was reconstructed in 1539, it was known as
Harflete Innor
Harflu Inn.Stow records the history and shifting function of the space, observing that that it
was a Brewhouse, but now faire builded for the sixe Clearkes of the Chauncerie, and standeth ouer against the saide house, called the Rolles(Stow 2:430). In Henry Wheatley’s annotation on a diary entry by Samuel Pepys, he recalls that the
business of the office was to enrol commissions, pardons, patents, warrants, and that had passed the Great Seal; also other business in Chancery(Wheatley 1058). Eventually, as Wheatley notes, the
(Wheatley 1058). Elijah Williams further explicates that the need for such an office can be traced back to 1415, whenSix Clerkswere abolished by act of Parliament
[t]he number of Clerks writing the Rolls of Chancery was increased from three to six(Williams 1441).
References
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Citation
Carlin, Martha, and Victor Belcher.Gazetteer to the c.1270 and c.1520 Maps with Historical Notes.
The British Atlas of Historic Towns. Vol. 3. The City of London From Prehistoric Times to c.1520. Ed. Mary D. Lobel and W.H. Johns. Oxford: Oxford UP in conjunction with The Historic Towns Trust, 1989. Print. [Also available online at British Historic Towns Atlas. Gazetteer part 1. Gazetteer part 2. Gazetteer part 3.]This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Harben, Henry A. A Dictionary of London. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1918. [Available digitally from British History Online: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/dictionary-of-london.]This item is cited in the following documents:
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Ogilby, John, and William Morgan. A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London. Ichnographically Describing all the Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts, Yards, Churches, Halls and Houses, &c. Actually Surveyed and Delinated. London, 1677. [See more information about this map.]This item is cited in the following documents:
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Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription. Ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews. 11 vols. Berkeley : U of California P, 1970–1983.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ &nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. London: John Windet for John Wolfe, 1598. STC 23341.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Williams, Elijah. Early Holborn and the Legal Quarter of London. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1927. 2 vols. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
