King's Counsel came to prominence during the early 1830s, prior to which they were relatively few in number. It became the standard means to recognise a barrister as a senior member of the profession, and the numbers multiplied accordingly.Duman, Daniel. The English and Colonial Bars in the Nineteenth Century. 1983. It became of greater professional importance to become a KC, and the serjeants gradually declined. The KCs inherited the prestige of the serjeants and their priority before the courts. The earliest English law list, published in 1775, lists 165 members of the Bar, of whom 14 were King's Counsel, a proportion of about 8.5%. roughly the same proportion existed, though the number of barristers had increased to about 12,250 in independent practice (i.e., excluding pupil barristers and employed barristers).
King's Counsel came to prominence during the early 1830s, prior to which they were relatively few in number. It became the standard means to recognise a barrister as a senior member of the profession, and the numbers multiplied accordingly.Duman, Daniel The English and Colonial Bars in the Nineteenth Century. 1983. It became of greater professional importance to become a KC, and the serjeants gradually declined. The KCs inherited the prestige of the serjeants and their priority before the courts. The earliest English law list, published in 1775, lists 165 members of the Bar, of whom 14 were King's Counsel, a proportion of about 8.5%. roughly the same proportion existed, though the number of barristers had increased to about 12,250 in independent practice (i.e. excluding pupil barristers and employed barristers).