ce Sulyard, members of the Inn,
from whom it descended to Edward Sulyard, who sold it in 1579 to the
society. Subscriptions for this purchase were received by the Benchers,
as is evident from the will of Sir Roger Cholmeley, dated 1565, who gave
to certain trustees a house in Newgate Market "to hold to them and their
heirs for ever towards the purchase of Lincoln's Inn and in the mean
season towards the repairs of the same."[125] The hall of this Inn was
pulled down and rebuilt in 1489; but since then, in 1845, a new hall,
Gothic in character, and of great dignity and beauty, has been erected.
The chapel, by Inigo Jones, dates from 1621, and the fine old gateway
from 1518.

The Inns of Chancery were at first independent of the four Inns of
Court, but, inasmuch as serjeants were chosen only from the latter, it
became the custom for students in the lesser Inns, when "they came to
ripeness," as Fortescue puts it, to enter one of the higher Inns if they
desired advancement. Gradually each Inn of Court took special interest
in certain of the lesser Inns, by sending to them Readers and by other
marks of patronage, until an impression came to exist, which was much
strengthened by various Orders in Council, that a certain governorship
of one over the other was a normal, legal, and time-honoured
institution. And in a few instances the Inns of Court put the coping
stone to this theory by purchasing the property of those lesser Inns, of
which they were the patrons. Thus Lincoln's Inn bought Furnival's on
December 16th, 1547, having previously held a lease of it, and Davy's on
November 24th, 1548; and the Inner Temple bought Lyon's Inn in 1581,
which they sold in 1863, the Globe Theatre being built upon its site.

It is doubtful whether Furnival's Inn was ever occupied by the Lords
Furnival. In 1331 the property belonged to Roger atte Bowe, a
wool-stapler, who died in that year, leaving his tenements in Holbourne
and a garden in Lyverounelane to his children. How or when it came into
the hands of the De Furnivals is not known; but in 1383 an inquisition
_post mortem_ was taken by the Mayor, at which the jurors recorded that

"William Furnyvall, knight, did not die seised of any lands or
tenements in the city of London nor in the suburbs thereof. But
that in his life time he was seised of two shops and 13
messuages with appurtenances in the street called Holbourne in
the suburb of London situated between a