Serjeant in United Kingdom

Meaning of Sergeant or Serjeant

The following is an old definition of Sergeant or Serjeant [1]: In England, the title of several officers. Sergeant-at-arms. An executive officer to a legislative body, and to a court of chancery, one of whose duties is to arrest for contempt. Sergeant-at-law. A barrister of the common-law courts, of high standing. These sergeants seem to have derived their title from the old knights templars, and have continued as a separate fraternity from an early period. Until 1834 they had the exclusive privilege of practicing in the courts of common pleas. A species of advocate or counsel, but not qualified to execute the full office of advocate till of sixteen years standing; at which time he may be called to the state and degree of Serjeant – servientes ad legem. The first king’s counsel under this degree was Sir Francis Bacon. The degree was deprived of its peculiar advantage, audience in the common pleas, by 9 and 10 Vict. (1846), c. 54, which extends to all banisters the privileges of sergeants. In 1839 the court of common pleas had decided that the crown, by a mere order, could not open that court to the bar at large, and thereby deprive the seitgeants of the enjoyment of an immemorial office. Sergeantry. See Feudal System.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Sergeant or Serjeant provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)