Serjeant - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition serjeant

Definition :

Serjeant [fr. serviens, Lat.], used in several senses:-

A feudal tenure by knight service due only to king, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.

(1) Serjeants-at-law, or of the coif (servientes ad legem), otherwise called serjeants counter, the highest degree in the Common Law, as doctors in the Civil Law; but, according to Spelman, a doctor of law is superior to a serjeant, for the very name of a doctor is magisterial, but that of a serjeant is only ministerial. Serjeants-at-law were made by the sovereign's writ, addressed unto such as are called, commanding them to take upon them that degree by a certain day, Fortescue, c. 50; 3 Cro. 1; Dyer, 72; 2 Inst. 213.

The monopoly of exclusive audience enjoyed by the serjeants in the Court of Common Pleas, during term time, ineffectually attempted to be abolished by Royal Warrant in 1834 [see In the Matter of the Serjeants-at-law, (1840) 6 Bing NC 235], was abolished in 1846 by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 54.

The judges of the Common Law Courts were formerly required to take or to have taken the degree of Serjeant-at-law; but by the Judicature Act, 1873, s. 8, that requirement is dispensed with in the case of any person appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice or of the Court of Appeal; and since 1868 no person except a Judge Designate has taken the degree, which, however, has never been formally abolished. See Pulling's Law of the Coif. Lord Lindley, d. 1921, was the last surviving Serjeant-at-Law.

(2) Serjeants-at-arms, officers attending the sover-eign's person to arrest individuals of distinction offending, and give attendance on the Lord High Steward of England, sitting in judgment on any traitor, etc. Two of these, by the royal permission, attend on the two Houses of Parliament, and each has a deputy; the office of him in the House of Commons is the keeping of the doors, and the execution of such commands, touching the apprehension and taking into custody of any offender, as the House shall enjoin him. Another of them attended the Court of Chancery, and one on the Lord Treasurer of England; also one upon the Lord Mayor of London on extraordinary solemnities, etc. They are in old books called virgatories, because they carried the silver rods gilded, as they now do maces, before the sovereign, Fleta, 1. 2, c. 38.

(3) Serjeants of the household were officers who executed several functions within royal household, 3 Hen. 8, c. 12.

(4) The Common Serjeant a judicial officer in the City of London, who attends the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen on Court days. He acts as one of the judges of the Central Criminal Court.

(5) Inferior serjeants, such as serjeants of the mace in corporations, officers of the county; and there are serjeants of manors, of the police, etc.