The Number of Attorneys Who Did Not Re-Appear: 515 of 779 (analyzed by degree of activity)
Of the 779 lawyers appointed as attorney at least once before the Black Death, 515 did not re-appear after the Black Death (2/3 of the group: 66%).
Of the 515 who did not re-appear, 179 had appeared only once from Hilary to Trinity term of 1348. These infrequent attorneys constitute 35% of the non-reappearing attorneys and 23% of all the pre-Black Death attorneys. Infrequent appearance, as explained above, does not equate to lack of professionalism or lesser competence. The non-re-appearance of these 515 individuals was not important for the continuity of the legal life around Westminster, since they had not been active participants anyway. The sheer number of these non-re-appearing infrequent attorneys, however, would have diminished the links between central and local life. A person who actually did function, even very infrequently, at Westminster still knew how the court worked; he would have been a provider of information at the local level about how the government worked. The need for such information would not have declined in direct proportion to the decline in the population. It would not seem, however, that the decline in the number of persons linking central to local in this function had any severe effect. In part, that loss was rapidly counterbalanced by other new means of implementing central directives, such as the justices of the peace.
A further 174 pre-Black Death lawyers appointed as attorneys appeared only between 2 and 5 times in the period examined. They constituted 34% of the non-re-appearing attorneys, and 22% of all the pre-Black Death attorneys. The analysis for these attorneys would seem to be identical with those who appeared only once. Thus, more 69% of the non-re-appearing attorneys and 45% of all pre-Black Death attorneys appeared but infrequently prior to the Black Death. Their non-re-appearance would have been felt only as a loss of the number of connecting links of this particular kind between central and local. Once again, that whole figure cannot simply be a result of Black Death mortality.
The remaining 162 lawyers who had functioned more frequently as attorneys prior to the Black Death but who did not re-appear afterwards were a greater loss to the continuity of legal life and knowledge at Westminster. They constituted 21% of those appointed attorneys right before the Black Death. Of that group of 162, 56 were a less important less, because they had been appointed only 6 to 10 times. The loss of the remaining 106 attorneys could have been a major problem, since they included lawyers who had been appointed frequently and included individual lawyers who had been appointed in 41, 60, and 72 cases. The actual damage occasioned by their non-re-appearance depended completely on the number and experience of those attorneys who did re-appear.
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