nd 1586, the hall from 1581.

[Illustration: MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL.]

Davy's Inn is most probably the correct name of the Inn, which for three
centuries past has unaccountably, possibly through Stow's mistake, gone
by the name of Thavies Inn. No record has yet been found earlier than
the reign of Queen Elizabeth in which the name of this Inn is any other
than Davy's or David's. The will of John Davy was proved in the Court of
Hustings in 1398.[145] He desired to be buried in the church of St.
Andrew. To Alice, his wife, he left his lands and tenements in Holborn
for life, with remainder to John Osbern and his wife, Emma, testator's
daughter, in tail; with remainder in trust for the maintenance of a
chantry in St. Mary's Chapel in the church of St. Andrew. The annual
proceeds of this latter bequest were still being received by the church
in the reign of Henry VIII. The testator was an attorney, and his name
occurs in many legal documents relating to Holborn in the reign of
Edward III.; he was also associated with others of the neighbourhood in
various pavage commissions. It is quite possible, however, and probable,
that the Inn which bore his name was an Inn long before his time. It was
bought by Lincoln's Inn in 1548, and sold in 1769. It has since been
demolished.

New Inn, in the Strand, also called St. Mary's Inn, was a guest Inn,
says Sir George Buck, writing in 1615, hired by Sir John Fineux, Chief
Justice of King's Bench, in the reign of Edward IV., for L6 per annum,
to place therein those students who were lodged in "la Baillie," in a
house called St George's Inn, near the upper end of St. George's Lane.
In the year 1348 the will of John Tavy, armourer, was proved in the
Court of Hustings.[146] He therein orders that after the decease of his
wife an Inn, where the apprentices were wont to dwell, should be sold,
and the proceeds devoted to the maintenance of a chantry. These
apprentices are not in the original will described as _ad legem_, but
these words have crept into a subsequent transcription. The testator
was, in 1342, one of the four members of the Company of Armourers
appointed by the mayor and aldermen, and sworn to observe and supervise
the then new regulations respecting the making and selling of
armour.[147] He would certainly have had his apprentices, and it may be
he referred to them in his will. He would have been a member of the
Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the men of the Mistery of
Armoure