of the archbishop of Canterbury, were elected "fellows" in the manner prescribed by the charter. There were also attached to the college thirty-four "proctors", whose duties were analogous to those of solicitors. Disestablishment In the nineteenth century, the institution of Doctors' Commons and its members were looked upon as old-fashioned and slightly ridiculous. As anticipation of an impending abolition grew, there was a reluctance among the society to admit new fellows as this would dilute the proceeds of any winding up of the property. Dr Thomas Hutchinson Tristram was the last to be admitted. The Court of Probate Act 1857 abolished the testamentary jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts and gave common lawyers the right to practise in fields which before had been the exclusive domain of civilians (doctors and proctors), while offering in practice scant compensation of the reverse also being permitted. Critically, the Act also made it lawful for the Doctors' Commons, by a vote of the majority of its fellows, to dissolve itself and surrender its Royal Charter, the proceeds of dissolution to be shared among the members. The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 created a new divorce court in which regular barristers or doctors of Doctors' Commons could . The High Court of Admiralty Act 1859 liberalised rights of audience in the Admiralty Court. This left to Doctors' Commons only the established church's Court of Arches. A motion to dissolve the society was entered on 13 January 1858 setting the path towards the last meeting which was the end of Trinity Term, 10 July 1865. The fellows rather than surrender their offices and charter resolved for its property to be sold and no appointments to any vacant post could be made. The buildings of Doctors' Commons were sold in 1865 and demolished soon after. The site is now largely occupied by the Faraday Building. The Court of Arches gave right of audience to barristers in 1867. The society perished with the death of its last fellow Tristram in 1912. In Victorian literature Satirical descriptions of Doctors' Commons can be found in Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz and in David Copperfield in which Dickens called it a "cosey, dosey, old-fashioned, time-forgotten, sleepy-headed little family party." In the same-era novel The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, the solicitor of Gray's Inn Square Mathew Bruff notes, "I shall perhaps do well if I explain in this place, for the benefit of the