Marshalsea Court

It was considered to be one of the most ancient courts of the realm; it sat by prescriptive right and was adjudged to be coeval with the common law of the land.

[6] Originally the jurisdiction of the court was general and extensive: 'it comprehended all actions, real, personal and mixed, and all pleas of the crown within the verge'.

[7] Subsequently it dealt with cases of trespass committed within the verge, if one party was in the sovereign's service; and with debts, contracts and covenants, where both parties belonged to the royal household, in which case the inquest was composed of men from the royal household only.

In some cases, the counsel practising before both the Marshalsea Court and the Palace Court overlapped, as was the case with the Lincoln's Inn barrister Levett Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett, former Lord Mayor of London.

[12] The Marshalsea Court and Palace Court were both abolished in 1849, whereupon the building in Scotland Yard was transferred to the Metropolitan Police (whose headquarters were opposite),[13] and it served as a police station until 1891 (when the police relocated to New Scotland Yard);[14] the old court building subsequently housed the offices of the Chief Inspector of Reformatories and Industrial Schools, until it was demolished as part of a comprehensive rebuilding of the area in 1909.