Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

SERVAGE

SEQUESTKO HABENDO 1082

Serjeants at law always had the exclusive privilege of practice in that court. Every judge of a common-law court, previous to his elevation to the bench, used to be created a Serjeant at law; but since the judicature act this is no longer necessary. Brown. SERJEANT OP THE MACE. In En glish law. An officer who attends the lord mayor of London, and the chief magistrates of other corporate towns. Holthouse. Serjeantia idem est quod servitium. Co. Litt. 105. Serjeanty is the same as serv ice. SERJEANTS' INN. The inn to which the Serjeants at law belonged, near Chancery lane; formerly called "Faryndon Inn." SERJEANTY. A species of tenure by knight service, which was due to the king only, and was distinguished into grand and petit serj eanty. The tenant holding by grand serjeanty was bound, instead of attending the king generally in his wars, to do some honorary service to the king in person, as to carry his banner or sword, or to be his but ler, champion, or other officer at his coro nation. Petit serjeanty differed from grand serjeanty, in that the service rendered to the king was not of a personal nature, but con sisted in rendering him annually some small implement of war, as a bow, sword, arrow, lance, or the like. Cowell; Brown. SERMENT. In old English law. Oath; an oath. Sermo index animi. 5Coke,118. Speech is an index of the mind. Sermo relatus ad personam intelligi debet de conditione personse. Language which is referred to a person ought to be un derstood of the condition of the person. 4 Coke, 16. Sermones semper accipiendi sunt se cundum subjectam materiam, et condi tionem personarum. 4 Coke, 14. Lan guage is always to be understood according to its subject-matter, and the condition of the persons. SERRATED. Notched on the edge; cut in notches like the teeth of a saw. This was anciently the method of tiimming the top or edge of a deed of indenture. See INDENT, V. SERVAGE, in feudal law, was where • tenant, besides payment of a certain rent, found one or more woikmen for his lord's service. Tomlins.

SEQUESTRO HABENDO. In English ecclesiastical law. A judicial writ for the dis charging a sequestration of the profits of a church benefice, granted by the bishop at the sovereign's command, thereby to compel the parson to appear at the suit of another. tTpon his appearance, the parson may have this writ for the release of the sequestration. Beg. Jud. 36. Sequi debet potentia justitiam non prsecedere. 2 Inst. 454. Power should fol low justice, not precede it. SERF. In the feudal polity, the serfs were a class of persons whose social con dition was servile, and who were bound to labor and onerous duties at the will of their lords. They differed from slaves only in that they were bound to their native soil, instead of being the absolute property of a master. SERGEANT. In military law. A non commissioned officer, of whom there are sev eral in each company of infantry, troop of cavalry, etc. The term is also used in the organization of a municipal police force. SERGEANT AT ARMS. SeeSER JEANT AT ARMS. SERGEANT AT LAW. See SERJEANT AT LAW. SERIATIM. Lat. Severally; separately; individually; one by one. SERIOUS. Important; weighty; mo mentous, and not trifling; as in the phrases "serious bodily harm," "serious personal in jury, " etc. 74 111. 231; 13 Wall. 230. SERJEANT AT ARMS. An executive officer appointed by, and attending on, a legis lative body, whose principal duties are to ex ecute its warrants, preserve order, and ar rest offenders. SERJEANT AT LAW. A barrister of the common-law courts of high standing, and of much the same rank as a doctor of law is in the ecclesiastical courts. These Serjeants seem to have derived their title from the old knights templar, (among whom there existed a peculiar class under the denomination of "freres sergens," or "fratres servientes,") and to have continued as a separate frater nity from a very early period in the history of the legal profession. The barristers who first assumed the old monastic title were those who practiced in the court of common pleas, and until a very recent period (the 25th of April, 1834, 9 & 10 Viet. c. 54) the

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