SEBGEANTRY, GRAND (Fr. sergenterie, from Lat. sereiens), a tenure by which lands were held in feudal times in England. After the conquest the forfeited lands were parceled out by William to his adherents on condition of the performance of services of a military character. The military tenants of the crown were, however, of two descrip tions: some held merely per servicium military, by knight-service; others held per ser gentiam, by grand sergeantry, a higher tenure, which involved attendance on the king not merely in war, but in his court at the three festivals of the year, and at other times when summoned. Although the word baron, in its more extended sense, was applied to both classes of crown tenants, yet it was only those holding by grand sergeantry whose tenure was said to be per baroniam. In its earliest stage the distinction between' the greater nobility and lesser nobility or gentry in England was, that the former held by grand sergeantry, and the latter by knight-service only. In theory, lauds held by ser
geantry could not be alienated or divided; but practically this came to be often done, and by this means tenures by sergeantry became gradually extinct before the abolition of military bowing] Considerable misapprehension on the part of Dugdale and later writers has all— ironi a double use of the word sereiens, or sergeant, which is soinetinies applied to a tenant either by grand sergeantry or knight-service who had not taken on himself the obligations attendant on knighthood.
The term petty sergeantry was applied to a species of socage tenure in which the services stipulated for bore some relation to war, but were not required to be executed personally by the tenant, or to be performed to the person of the king, as the payment of rent in spurs or arrows.