The earliest lawyers – in the sense of people who helped others to seek justice – can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. However, in ancient Greek society, people accused of a crime had to plead their own cases and could not pay others to do this for them. Likewise, Greek lawyers (or orators, as they were known – men trained in the art of rhetoric) could not accept payment. Although many seem to have turned a blind eye to these rules, they still existed, and could be enforced. In ancient Rome these orators (also called advocates) were allowed to act on behalf of others, although initially a fee could not be paid to them. This ban was partially overturned by the Roman Emperor Claudius, who limited the fee that could be paid. These changes allowed legal specialists called jurisconsults also to develop in Rome. Claudius’ legalisation and subsequent regulation of the profession also allowed the Roman legal system to develop.

The advocates largely superseded the jurisconsults and began to study law as well as rhetoric. Other developments included advocates having to be enrolled on the bar of a court to argue before it, advocates having to produce references and testimonials from their teachers and proof of four years’ legal study. Although a fee limit still stood, it was widely ignored or circumvented.

With the fall of the Roman Empire came centuries of decline of the legal profession, but in 12th-century Europe men began to be trained in canon – church – law. Initially, almost all would have been priests, studying ecclesiastical law to further their careers, but within a relatively short time others began such study as a profession in itself.

There are records concerning those who held various legal posts going back to the Norman invasion, and TheGenealogist.co.uk (under Occupational records, Law Lists) has a number of different resources of help to those with legal forebears or wanting to find out more about the profession. The Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England provides information on holders of the posts of judge from 1066 to 1870; Clarke’s [its then-publisher] New Law List is well described by its subtitle – being a list of the judges and officers of the different courts of justice; counsel, with the dates of their call and Inns of Court; special pleaders, conveyancers; and a complete and accurate list of certificated attornies, notaries, &c. in England and Wales. The Genealogist also has in its databases Law Lists from 1824, 1826 and 1856, and these include names of attorneys, barristers and solicitors as well as the firm they worked for and its address. You can also find The Solicitors’ Diary, Almanac and Legal Directory, 1900 and 1911’s Justices of the Peace in England and Wales .

Justices of the Peace, also called magistrates and who were usually local gentry, did not have formal legal training, and lists of their appointments can be found at The National Archives in series C202. Detail can also be found in the London Gazette, the official government record, most of which has now been digitised.

Legal terminology can sometimes be confusing. Solicitors and barristers were both legally trained, but whereas a solicitor’s role is to advise people about their legal rights, often in a specialised area, a barrister’s role is in court as an advocate for a client. Lawyer is really an umbrella term for both. If you are trying to find out about an ancestor and are unsure if he or she was a solicitor or a barrister, bear in mind that a barrister had to become a member of one of the four Inns of Court (Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn and Gray’s Inn – also note that each has an archive and some have published registers of those admitted). Many barristers would have also attended university, which in England until the 1830s would have meant Oxford or Cambridge.

Records of solicitors, particularly from 1700s onwards, have generally survived well. The National Archives is the place to begin a search for a particular person, as it holds many historic records relating to solicitors and attorneys (in effect an older term for solicitors who practiced in the Court of Chancery, with origins going as far back as the Norman invasion, and other courts of equity). Attorneys and solicitors had to be admitted to a court in order to practice, and records may well be found at the court in question. The Law Society holds records of the Registrar of Attorneys and Solicitors, which might help you find the relevant court. (Its website has a great deal of helpful information in general about the history of the legal profession.) Court admission books and registers will give the names and addresses of attorneys, solicitors and other court officials that were admitted.

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