“In the time of Gregory, Mayor of London, in the eighth year of the reign of King Edward, because that oftentimes there were some who made themselves countors, who did not understand their profession, nor had learnt it; as to whom, the substantial men of the City well perceived that through their ignorance the impleaded and impleaders lost their pleas and their suits, in the Hustings and in the houses of the Sheriffs, and that some were disinherited through their foolish conduct; seeing that every one made himself a countor at his own will, such a one sometimes as did not know how to speak in proper language, to the great scandal of the Courts aforesaid which allowed them so to be, as also pleaders, and attorneys, and essoiners, and sometimes in the Sheriff’s Court, assessors, and [thereby] each of them the judge of others, privily or openly; through which, right was intercepted by them:—the Mayor aforesaid, with his Aldermen, and other substantial men of the City, at the request of the serjeants and countors who understood their profession, and who therein felt themselves greatly aggrieved, has established that from henceforth such persons shall not be heard as do not reasonably understand their profession, and how becomingly to manage the business and the suits of the substantial men; and that such person shall hereafter be admitted by the Mayor and the substantial men aforesaid; saving nevertheless unto each reputable man such counsel as he shall wish to have, either from stranger or from denizen [and] such as he shall think proper to seek for his business. But that this ordinance and establishment shall hold good so far as our serjeants, attorneys, and essoiners, who generally frequent our Courts, and are constantly dwelling among us. And their will is, that each one hold his own estate, that is to say, that no countor be an attorney or an essoiner, and no essoiner a countor or an attorney.
The duty of a countor is as follows:—Standing, to plead and to count counts, and to make proffers at the bar, without baseness, and without reproach and foul words, and without slandering any man, so long as the Court lasts. Nor shall serjeants or attorneys go further in front beyond the bar or the seat where their sitting is; nor shall any one be assessor, or sit near the bailiff, for delivering pleas or judgments, unless it so be that the principal bailiff who is holding the Court shall call him unto him; and in such case he shall make oath that he will support neither side.
Nor shall any countor, or any other man, counterplead or gainsay the records or the judgments; but if it appear to them that there is some error therein, according to the law and usage of the City, let them make complaint or representation unto the Mayor, who shall redress the error, if there be one in the matter. No countor is to undertake a suit to be partner in such suit, or to take pay from both parties in any action; but well and lawfully he shall exercise his profession. No countor or other is to gainsay the judgments of the Hustings, or to go about procuring how to defeat the acts and the awards of the community. And that this they will do the countors shall make oath.
He who shall be near the judge without being invited, or who shall counterplead the records and the judgments [or] who shall slander another, if [it be] in the Sheriff’s Court, shall be suspended for eight days, so that he shall count for no one, or else he shall be amerced by the Sheriff in half a mark. If [it be] in the Hustings, he shall be suspended for three Hustings or more, according to the offence. He who takes from both parties and is attainted thereof, shall be suspended for three years: where one takes [money], and then leaves his client, and leagues himself with the other party, and where one takes [money] and abandons his client, let such person return twofold, and not be heard against the client in that plea. He who goes about procuring how to defeat the awards or the judgments of the community, and is attainted thereof, shall be for ever suspended, and held as one perjured for ever. And the countor who undertakes a plea to partake in the demand, shall be for ever suspended, if he be attainted thereof. The attorneys are to have this same penalty [inflicted], if they contravene this ordinance, and be attainted thereof. If the attorneys, by their default or by their negligence, lose the actions of those whose attorneys they are, they are to have imprisonment, according to the Statute of the King. And no one who is an attorney shall be an essoiner, and no essoiner shall be an attorney, under the pain aforesaid.”—Liber Custumarum, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 595-597.