DOCTORS’ COMMONS was a society of ecclesiastical lawyers in London, forming a distinct profession for the practice of the civil and canon laws. Some members of the profession purchased in 1567 a site near St Paul’s, on which at their own expense they erected houses for the residence of the judges and advocates, and proper buildings for holding the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. “In the year 1768 a royal charter was obtained by virtue of which the then members of the society and their successors were incorporated under the name and title of ‘ The College of Doctors of Law exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts.’ The college consists of a president (the dean of Arches for the time being) and of those doctors of law who, having regularly taken that degree in either of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and having been admitted advocates in pursuance of the rescript of the archbishop of Canterbury, shall have been elected fellows in the manner prescribed by the charter.” The judges of the archiépiscopal courts were always selected from this college. By 20 and 21 Vict. c. 77 (the Act to amend the law relating to Probate and Letters of Administration) § 116 and 117, the college is empowered to sell its real and personal estate and to surrender its charter to Her Majesty, and it is enacted that on such surrender the college shall be dissolved and the property thereof shall belong to the then existing members as tenants in common for their own use and benefit. In pursuance of this enactment the college has been dissolved and the ecclesiastical courts are now open to the whole bar.