During
the Georgian and early Victorian periods Serjeants' Inn was the only
remaining Inn
of Court for the judges and serjeants of the law and contained chambers
wholly for the accommodation of these gentlemen. The Inn on Chancery
Lane was the third site of a Serjeants' Inn; of the two former Inns,
Scropes Inn stood on the north side of Holborn (this was abandoned in
1498) and Fleet Street Inn stood on the south side of Fleet Street and
at the north-east corner of the Temple (this was destroyed in 1666).
The Serjeants sold their Inn in 1877 and they returned to their original
Inns of Court.
A
serjeant-at-law was a superior rank of barrister; until 1875 only serjeants
could be appointed judges (the name serjeant is a corruption of the
original Latin servientes, literally a servant of the law).
When a barrister was appointed a serjeant, he left his Inn of Court
and joined Serjeant's Inn.
