Doctors' Commons, the college of civilians in London, near St. Paul's churchyard, founded by Dr. Henry Harvey, dean of the arches, for the doctors of the civil law, burned down in the great fire of 1666, rebuilt in 1672 at the cost of the profession, and taken down in 1867. In the common hall were held until 1858 the sessions of the court of arches, the chief ecclesiastical court of the province, the archdeacon's court, the prerogative court for the hearing of testamentary causes, the faculty court, the court of delegates, and the court of admiralty. The most interesting part of doctors' commons was the prerogative will office, in which were kept all wills admitted to probate in the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury, which had jurisdiction over nearly all such business in the kingdom. The original testaments preserved here dated from 1483, the copies from 1383. Great care was taken to prevent mutilation. No stranger was allowed to make a memorandum from either the wills or the index; extracts or transcripts, when wanted, were written out by the attending copyists, but any person was allowed to examine a will on payment of the regular fee. Attached to the college were 34 proctors, who gave licenses for marriages, and performed the duties of solicitors.

Only doctors of the civil law were allowed to practise in the courts held in doctors' commons. By acts of parliament passed Aug. 25 and 28, 1857, and Aug. 2, 1858, the importance of doctors' commons was in great measure destroyed. Jurisdiction in all testamentary, divorce, and matrimonial cases was transferred from the ecclesiastical tribunals to a court of probate, and a court for divorce and matrimonial causes. A central office for the registry of wills was opened, with branches in the chief towns of the kingdom, and judges of ecclesiastical courts were ordered to transmit to it all wills in their possession. Serjeants and barristers at law were admitted to practise in the probate court, but compensation was made to the displaced proctors to the amount of one third of the average profits of their business, payable during their natural lives, and officers of the ecclesiastical courts were transferred to corresponding positions in the new probate court. Marriage licenses were to be granted as before.

The same restrictions relative to the examining of wills continued in force in the new registry office, and drew forth a remonstrance from literary men early in 1859. The jurisdiction of the court of delegates is now transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council, but the court of arches, the archdeacon's court, and the faculty court still exist for the hearing of ecclesiastical causes.