Advocates took the place of barristers, and proctors of solicitors.
In 1803 Palgrave was articled to a firm of solicitors, but was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1827.
To secure business and to conduct his cases with adequate knowledge, he studied the forms of English law, he solicited William Strahan, the printer, "to get him employed in city causes," and he entered into social intercourse (as is noted in Alexander Carlyle's autobiography) with busy London solicitors.
There were also attached to the college thirty-four proctors, whose duties were analogous to those of solicitors.
He was barely seventeen when (in November 1821) he was taken into the office of Messrs Swain, Stevens and Co., solicitors, in Frederick's Place, Old Jewry.
