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1921 WRITS OF ASSISTANCE, 1558-1700 361 which can be looked upon by D'Ewes in the early seventeenth century as quite contrary to the ordinary procedure of his day. 1 It should, however, be made clear that this general conclusion applies much more justly to the legal advisers of the Crown than to the secretaries of state, for the latter do not become important until the early sixteenth century, when the peers have already gained some corporate unity. Consequently, when they begin to receive writs of assistance, it is really in order that they may give the upper house information in regard to the many matters of administrative or diplomatic importance with which they had to deal. For the purpose of examining more in detail the conditions of summons of those six groups of officials who received writs of assistance, and their relations with the lords and the commons, it will be desirable to consider them separately. (a) Throughout the whole of this period (1558-1700) the two chief justices and the chief baron were regularly summoned to attend the house of peers. The judges of the king's bench and the common pleas were also summoned pretty regularly, though it would not be safe to say that they were all summoned to every parliament. The case of the barons of the exchequer is not quite so simple. It had long been the custom for judges of the king's bench and common pleas to become serjeants-at-law upon their appointment as judges, if they were not so already ; 2 the barons of the exchequer did not, however, necessarily do this; indeed, Robert Shute (appointed June 1579) was the first baron to be also a serjeant-at-law. 3 As the Pawns for the earlier parliaments of Elizabeth's reign do not exist, we cannot say just how early the barons received writs of assistance, but they certainly did not get them before 1558, and as attainment of the degree of the coif seems to be a necessary qualification for summons, 4 it is probable that the first writ of assistance was sent to a baron in 1584, and it is certain that two such writs were issued to barons of the exchequer (both also serjeants-at- law) in 1586. 5 From this time onwards most of the barons attained to the degree of the coif, and there even exist instances where barons who were also Serjeants were not summoned, 6 1 In each case quoted above he calls attention to the fact in a special note, and on p. 99 he says, ' which is a matter to be observed, because of later days neither the said Assistants nor Attendants are ever appointed joint Committees with the Lords, as here ; but only Commanded by the House to attend upon the Committee '. 2 This remained the rule until it was abolished by the Judicature Act of 1873. 8 Foss, Judges, in the life of Robert Shute. 4 Cf. Coke, Institutes, iv. 4 ; Blackstone, Commentaries, i. 162. 6 Parliament Pawns, bundle i, no. 12. 6 e. g. Sir James Altham, who was made a baron of the exchequer in 1607 but was not summoned to the parliament of 1604-11, though Sir Edward Bromley, who was of a later creation, was summoned.