DOCTORS COMMONS, formerly the college of the doctors of civil law in London, wherein the court of admiralty and the principal ecclesiastical courts were held. It was founded by Dr. Henry Harvey, dean of the arches, previous to which time the doctors had lived in Paternoster row. The original building was burned in the great fire in 1666, when the doctors removed for a time to Exeter house. After some time the commons was rebuilt, and the doctors returned to their former quarters. The courts which had been wont to hold their sittings at doctors commons are—the court of arches, the archdeacon's court, the prerogative court, the faculty court, the court of delegates, and the court of admiralty. The prerogative court is now amalgamated in the probate court (q.v.), and the court of delegates (q.v.) is transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council. At the time when these courts were all in full operation, their times of session were regulated by terms, as in the courts of equity and common law, a cer tain day in the week being assigned to each court for hearing its causes. The court of arches, the archdeacon's court, the faculty court, and the court of admiralty, have been changed, and no longer continue to exercise their functions in this once famous spot. The court of arches (so called from having sat in Areubus, or under the arches or bows of Bow church, Cheapside) is the court of appeal belonging to the archbishop of Canter bury. The judge in this court is styled dean of the arches, and he has jurisdiction, as the archbishop's principal official, in all ecclesiastical causes within the province of Canterbury. He has original jurisdiction, also, in certain causes by letters of request (q.v.). It was by virtue of letters of request that matrimonial causes were tried in the court of arches; but this branch Of its jurisdiction is now removed to the divorce court (q.v.). The archdeacon's court is an inferior court for the consideration of ecclesiastical
questions occurring within the arclideaconry. For an account of the other courts men tioned in this article, see the several heads to which they refer. The practitioners in the several courts to which we have alluded were the doctors of civil law, called in the ecclesiastical courts advocates and proctors, who performed similar duties to those of attorneys or solicitors in the courts of law and equity. Both classes of practitioners required, in order to their admission to practice, to obtain the fiat of the archbishop, and afterwards to be duly admitted by the dean of the arches. The form of admission was in both cases attended with much ceremony. The doctor elect was introduced to the presiding judge by two doctors habited in their scarlet robes. The candidate then made a short Latin speech, and was admitted to practice in the courts. The habit of the doc tors is a scarlet robe with a hood, trimmed with taffeta or white minever. The proctors were, in like manner, introduced by two senior proctors. In 1857, power was given by 20 and 21 Vict. c. 77, to dissolve the college of doctors commons and sell the property. The proctors received compensation, and all solicitors are allowed to act as proctors, and all proctors were turned into solicitors, all being alike solicitors of the supreme court, 21 and 22 Vict. cc. 95, 108; 23 and 24 Vict. c. 27; 33 and 34 Vict. c. 28, s. 30; 40 and 41 Vict. c. 25, a 17. Nevertheless the old names continue, and will no doubt only by degrees cease to be used in reference to ecclesiastical courts and proceedings. For a full account of doctors commons, see Stowe's London.