Doctors' Commons - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition doctors-commons

Definition :

Doctors' Commons, an institution near St. Paul's Cathedral, where the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts were held. In 1768 a royal charter was obtained, by virtue of which the members of the society and their successors were incorporated under the name and title of 'The College of Doctors of Laws exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts.' The college consisted of a president (the Dean of Arches for the time being), and of those Doctors of Laws who, having regularly taken that degree in either of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and having been admitted advocates in pursuance of the rescript of the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been elected fellows of the college in the manner prescribed by the charter. The property of the college was sold, the charter surrendered, and the college dissolved under the (English) Probate Act, 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 77), ss. 116, 117.