Doctors' Commons

Doctors' Commons, formerly the college of the doctors of civil law in London, situated in St Bennet's Hill, St Paul's Churchyard. It was founded by Dr Henry Harvey, Dean of the Arches, in 1568, previous to which time the doctors had lived in Paternoster Row. The original building was burned in the great fire in 1666, when the doctors removed for a time to Exeter House. In 1672 the Commons was rebuilt, and the doctors returned to their former quarters. The college was incorporated by royal charter in 1768. The persons practising in Doctors' Commons were the doctors, called in the ecclesiastical courts advocates, and the proctors, whose duties were analogous to those of solicitors. Both doctors and proctors were admitted by fiat of the Archbishop, and introduced to the Dean of Arches in court by two persons of their own degree, in their robes. The robe of the doctors was scarlet, with a hood trimmed with taffeta or white minever. In 1557, on the establishment of the Divorce Court and Probate Court, the charter of Doctors' Commons was surrendered, and the corporation was dissolved, the advocates being merged in the general body of the bar, and the proctors becoming solicitors; but the old names are still used to some extent in the ecclesiastical courts. The courts which sat at Doctors' Commons were the Court of Admiralty (q.v.); the Prerogative Court, whose powers were transferred to the Probate Court; the Court of Delegates, whose powers are now exercised by the judicial committee of the Privy-council; and two other ecclesiastical tribunals, the Faculty Court and the Archdeacon's Court. The Court of Arches also sat in the same place. The buildings of the College of Advocates were demolished in 1867; and in 1874 the Doctors' Commons Will Office was removed to Somerset House.