Corporations are likewise spiritual or temporal: spiritual, of bishops, deans, archdeacons, parsons, vicars, &c.; temporal, of majors, commonalty, bailiff) and burgesses, &c. Some are of a mixed nature, composed of spiritual and temporal persons, such as leads of colleges and hospitals, &c.
Lay corporations are of two sorts, civil -and eleemosynary. The civil are erected for a variety of purposes; as the king, to prevent an interregnum or Vacancy of the throne; a mayor and commonalty, bailiff and burgesses, and the like, for the advancement and regulation of manufactures and commerce. The eleemosynary sort are such as are constituted for the perpetual distribution of free
alms, or bounty of the founder to them, of such persons as he has directed; as all hospitals, colleges, &c.
A corporation may he created by the common law, by the king's charter, by act of parliament, and by prescription. When a corporation is created, a name must be given to it; and by that name alone it must sue and be sued, and do all legal acts,
for the name is the very being of its constitution; and though it is the will of the king that erects the corporation, yet
the name is the Knot of its combination, without which it could not perform its corporate functions. Source: The Complete English Lawyer: Or, Everyman His Own Lawyer (1823).