Hilary Sittings

Hilary Sittings. These take the place, since the Judicature Act, of Hilary Term, beginning on the 11th of January, and terminating on the Wednesday before Easter; see R.S.C. Ord. LXIII., r. 1. It was so called from Hilary, Biship of Poictiers, in France, a great champion of the Catholic faith against the Arians in the fourth century (see Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, c. xxi.). By the Judicature Act, 1873, s. 26 (now obsolete), 'the division of the legal year into terms was abolished, so far as relates to the administration of justice.' See SITTINGS; TERMS.

In England, a term of court beginning on January, 11 of each year and ending on Wednesday before Easter, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 735.