king's staple in
Flanders, before the king and his council on the morrow of the
close of Easter next, to inform them of things that will be set
forth to him."[139]

It seems apparent, then, that Staple Inn was not unconnected in those
days with the staple of wool.

The Ordinance of the Staple was issued in 1313,[140] but there are good
grounds for believing that long before this date the site was already in
use as a custom house and wool court. The ordinance was embodied in a
statute of the realm in 1353.[141] London was no longer mentioned as a
staple, Westminster being substituted, the bounds of which were defined
as commencing at Temple Bar, and ending at Tothill.[142] But it is
likely that the Inn at Holborn Bars was still occupied by attorneys who
practised for their patrons of the Staple, and that the Merchants for
Wools still had their meetings there. In 1401 Hamond Elyot sued a
plaint of debt against Martyn Dyne, of Haydon, Norfolk, for the sum of
L26 2s. 3d., in the Court of Staple at Westminster;[143] and one hundred
years later, John Dyne, his descendant, also of Haydon, Norfolk, was a
member of Staple Inn. In his will, proved 1505, he gives the names of
the company of the Inn. Edmund Paston, grandson of the Judge, was a
member in 1467, and we learn from one of his letters that the Inn had a
Principal at that date.

In 1529, John Knighton and Alice, his wife, daughter of John Copwode of
the Remembrancer's Office of the Exchequer, sold the inheritance of the
Inn to the Ancients of Gray's Inn, after which there were other
feoffments in trust, the last of which, that we know of, dated June 4th,
1622, being that of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, to Edward Moseley,
Attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster and others, Readers of Gray's Inn,
"to hold to them, their heirs and assigns of the chief lords of that fee
by the services thence due and of right accustomed."[144] The society
eventually became its own master, and in 1811 had no connection whatever
with Gray's Inn. It was dissolved in 1884, when its property was sold to
a firm of auctioneers, who parted with it in the same year, the
Government buying the southern portion for an extension of the Patent
Office, and the Prudential Assurance Company the remainder. The lawyers
still congregate there; the only difference being a change of landlords,
though the hall has been leased to the Institute of Actuaries. The
frontage of the Inn dates from 1570 a