serjeant (er as ar)

[SERGEANT.] 1. Formerly an officer in England, nearly answer ing to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on his lord high-stewart in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. Now called a Serjeant-at-Arms (q. v.). 2. Eng . Law: A lawyer of the highest rank. He is called serjeant-at-law (Low Latin serviens ad legem ), serjeant-counter, or serjeant of the coif. Up to 1874 all common-law judges were admitted to the rank of serjeants-at-law before they sat as judges. Serjeants were appointed by writ or by patent of the crown. The title was abolished in 1880. The number of serjeants-at-law was limited to fifteen. The most valuable privilege enjoyed by them was the monopoly of pleading in the Court of Common Pleas. This was taken away from them by the Act 9 & 10 Vict., c. 54 (1846), when the privilege was extended to barristers of any degree practicing in the superior courts at Westminster. They wore scarlet robes, and in former a coif of lawn, upon the head. This latter was afterward represented by a small circlet of black silk, of about three inches in diameter, upon the top of the wig. They were addre ed as "Brothers" by the judges. 3. Mil .: A sergeant (q.v.). Serjeant - at - arms: A title given to certain British officers, one of whom attends the lord-chancellor, another the speaker of the House of Com mons, and the third the lord-mayor of London on state or solemn occasions. [SERGEANT-AT-ARMS.]