What is a barrister? Nowadays that question would usually be answered with a job description, but there is a distinction between practising as a barrister and being a barrister – that is, having the degree of barrister. It is the nature of that degree, rather than the nature of practice at the bar, that I propose to address. Before explaining why I refer to it as a ‘degree’, I should first explain why the question might be thought appropriate for a legal historian. Although the degree has been noticed as such by Parliament, most recently in the Education (Recognised Awards) Order 1988, there is no statutory definition of it, nor is the constitution of the academy which confers it laid down by any statute or charter, and therefore the nature of the degree is discoverable only from tradition, custom and usage.

Let us therefore begin with some chronology. Although there was a professional Bar in England before 1250, we do not hear of barristers by that name until two hundred years later. Indeed, the word ‘barrister’ has not yet been found before 1466, when it occurs in the Black Books of Lincoln's Inn. (The earlier form ‘barrer.’ is found in 1455.) In all probability the degrees of barrister and bencher appeared in all four inns of court at around that period.