 The Inn continued to prosper during the reign of James I ( 1603 – 1625 ) and the beginning of that of Charles I , when over 100 students per year were recorded as joining . The outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642 during the reign of Charles I disrupted the systems of legal education and governance at the Inns of Court , shutting down all calls to the Bar and new admissions , and Gray 's Inn never fully recovered . Fortunes continued to decline after the English Restoration , which saw the end of the traditional method of legal education . Although now more prosperous , Gray 's Inn is today the smallest of the Inns of Court . 
