THERE has been no previous attempt at a social history of the profession of attorneys and solicitors in eighteenth-century England. In recent years there have been studies of the parish clergy and of the medical professions during this period. These are as yet unpublished, and I am grateful to their authors, Mr P. A. Bezodis and Dr B. M. Hamilton, for allowing me to see their work. My own research has in some ways proved complementary, and has suggested that this was a period of crucial importance for the history of the professions in England. It has also tried to show how important the attorneys were in the working of English society in the eighteenth century.

The main MS. sources which have been used are indicated at the end of the work. In general, the working papers of attorneys have proved of limited use for a study of this kind, and are difficult to quote briefly and intelligibly. They have, however, been extremely useful in creating an impression of the nature and of the importance of the attorney's work, even when, as is often the case, the attorney's personal papers have been destroyed and only those belonging to his clients have been preserved. I am most grateful to the various county archivists and librarians whose papers I have used, and particularly to Mr F. G. Emmison of the Essex County Record Office, and Mr W. P. Lamb, formerly the City Librarian of Sheffield, for their kindness in depositing bulky collections of documents for lengthy periods in my college library. Mr T. Gray of the Cumberland County Record Office allowed me to arrange the unsorted Hodgson papers so that I might use them more conveniently.

For permission to use the Wentworth Woodhouse papers at Sheffield I am indebted to Earl Fitzwilliam and his trustees of the Wentworth Woodhouse Settled Estates. The Librarian of the Royal Institution of Cornwall enabled me to see the Journal of Christopher Wallis deposited with him by Mr J. Percival Rogers.