LORD STEWARD, in England, an important official of the king's household. He is always a member of the Government, a peer and a privy councillor. Up to i 782 the office was one of con siderable political importance and carried cabinet rank. The lord steward receives his appointment from the sovereign in person, and bears a white staff. He is the first dignitary of the court. In the Statutes of Eltham he is called "the lord great master," but in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth "the lord steward," as before and since. He presides at the Board of Green Cloth, a committee of the king's household, charged with the audit of its accounts. The board had also power to punish all offenders within the verge or jurisdiction of the palace. The name is derived from the green-covered table at which the transactions of the board were originally conducted. Under the lord steward are the treasurer and comptroller of the household, usually peers or the sons of peers and privy councillors, who sit at the Board of Green Cloth, carry white staves, and belong to the Ministry. But the duties which in theory belong to the lord steward, treasurer and comptroller of the household are in practice performed by the master of the household, who is a permanent officer and resides in the palace. He is a white-staff officer and a member of the Board of Green Cloth but not of the Ministry, and among other things he presides at the daily dinners of the suite in waiting on the sovereign. In his case history repeats itself. He is not named in the Black Book of Edward IV. or in the Statutes of Henry VIII., and is entered as "master of the household and clerk of the green cloth" in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth. But he has superseded the lord steward of the household, as the lord steward of the household at one time superseded the lord high steward of England.
In the lord steward's department are the officials of the Board of Green Cloth, the coroner ("coroner of the verge"), and pay master of the household, and the officers of the almonry. (See
ALMONER.) The lord steward had formerly three courts besides the Board of Green Cloth under him. First, the lord steward's court, superseded (1541) by—second—the Marshalsea court, a court of record having jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, within the verge (the area within a radius of 12m. from where the sovereign is resident), and originally held for the purpose of administering justice between the domestic servants of the sovereign, "that they might not be drawn into other courts and their service lost." Its criminal jurisdiction had long fallen into disuse and its civil jurisdiction was abolished in 1849. Third, the palace court, created by letters patent in 1612 and renewed in 1665 with jurisdiction over all personal matters arising between parties within I2M. of Whitehall (the jurisdiction of the Mar shalsea court, the City of London and Westminster Hall being excepted). It had no jurisdiction over the sovereign's household, nor were its suitors necessarily of the household. The privilege of practising before the palace court was limited to four counsel. It was abolished in 1849. The lord steward or his deputies for merly administered the oaths to the members of the House of Commons. In certain cases (messages from the sovereign under the sign-manual) "the lords with white staves" are the proper persons to bear communications between the sovereign and the houses of parliament.
the Statutes of Eltham; the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth; Sir E. Coke, Institutes (1797) ; J. Reeves, History of English Law (1869) ; Sir H. J. Stephen, Commentaries on the Laws of England (18th ed., 1925) ; J. H. Hatsell, Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons (1818) ; T. E. May, A Practical Treatise on the Law . . . and Usage of Parliament (13th ed., 1921).