Life at a lawyer's courts in the early modern period: new finds from Inner Temple, City of London.
By Märit Gaimster
Website editing: Graham Sherwood
Archaeological monitoring of landscaping work at the Inner Temple in 2006 produced a well-defined assemblage of material dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. The finds give a further insight into activities and daily life in the Inner Temple during the early modern period, and add to the picture of the Lawyer's Courts revealed by earlier excavations by Pre-Construct Archaeology during 1999 and 2000.
Numerous copper-alloy lace-chapes were retrieved, reflecting the fashion at the time of laced-up clothing and use of decorative detail on garments. With a total number now of well over one hundred, these small dress accessories confirm the presence, suggested from earlier finds, of small-scale trade and stallholders in this part of the Inner Temple. Bunches of small iron buckles, probably for shoes or spurs, also testified to trade of this kind of goods, while pumice stone and lead printing types indicated the presence of both printers and parchment makers.
The new finds included characteristic 16th-century dress accessories such as decorative pins and dress fasteners. Some of the dress accessories show traces of a laquer coating, fashionalble at the time. This can be clearly seen on a dagger chape of folded copper-alloy sheet, decorated with a herringbone pattern. Among the finds was also a 17th-century enamelled coat button, embossed in high relief with the motif of a lion passant. Both high-relief and enamelled buttons are rare finds, and the owner is likely to have been a person of some standing; datable evidence suggest they became fashionable around 1650 (Fig. 1).
Figure 1
A 17th-century enamelled coat button
Other personal belongings are reflected in toilet implements, both in metal and bone. They include a simple copper-alloy nail cleaner/earscoop and a delicately carved bone earscoop that would have been part of a set; toilet sets of bone became increasingly popular from the 16th century onwards. A delicate brush made from a simply carved splinter of bone, tightly wound with silk thread and copper-alloy wire at one end, is an unusual find. Under the microscope some of the bristles are still visible. The function of this little implement is not known, but a use as a make-up brush is suggestive!.
The assemblage from Hare Court also included finds that reflect more serious activities at the lawyer's courts. A copper-alloy book clasp with splayed end and a decoration of concentric circles is of a characteristic early post-medieval type, but the metal dip pen is a more unusual find (Fig. 2). From the Middle Ages until the 18th century, a feather quill was the usual implement for writing with ink. The Hare Court pen is made of folded copper-alloy sheet, and similar copper-alloy pens of quill form are known from late medieval deposits in London.
The full report of the Hare Court finds will be published shortly in The London Archaeologist.
Related publications:
J. Butler, 2005. Saxons, Templars & Lawyers in the Inner Temple. PCA Monograph 4.
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