In counties, the king's serjeant, as a judicial officer, may be traced to a much Later period ; and although the office is now become obso. lete, and its principal functions have for centuries devolved upon the justices of the peace, proclamation is still made upon the execution of every commission of jail delivery, inviting all persons to inform this officer of any treason, felonies, or misdemeanors committed by the prisoner at the bar.
Where the criminal jurisdiction of a particular district was annexed to a grant of land to a subject, the jurisdiction, though imposed as a condition and a burden, was called a franchise [FiraNcntsx], inasmuch as it excluded the ordinary power of the officers of the crown. The grantee was said to hold in frank serjeanty, en franche sergenterio ; and in respect of the lands attached to the office, this serjeanty was in Normandy sometimes called une scrgenterie gl6b6e. For the actual administration of justice, the tenant usually delegated his judicial authority as serjeant to an officer of his own, who was therefore called Ms serjcant, or the serjeant of the district (Mad. Exch.; 103; Testa de Nevi]; 3S9), or serjeant of the peace for the district (Cowell, • loterpr.) Hence, the steward of a private beet, or of a manor to which a led is attached, to whom the lord always delegates his judicial power, is eometimea designated as aerviena save sencocallue. (4 Co., • Rep.,' 21.) Latterly, indeed, it has been considered that a tenure by serjeanty could only be created by, and held under, the crown. (Co. 108 a.) This was not the case, however, In the time of II enry III., as appears by Bracton (35 b.).
The tenure, by which lands were held by a "serjeant of the county," or " serjeant in fee," was a serjeanty belonging to that class which was called grand serjeanty, as being connected with the administration of justice. Edmund, earl of Lancaster, brother of Edward I., died seised "de magma sergeantia totlus comitattui do Derby." (' Calend. loquis. post. mortem; 136, b.) But the serjeants of counties were neither the only nor the moat numerous claim of serjeantsatelaw. Tho main branch of that body remained in attendance upon the king. Their duty was to assist in the proceedings of the Aula Itegia, the great court of justice of the realm, as aasessors to the chief justiciar, and as advocates for the suitors, who being generally unacquainted with the language in which the proceedings of the court were carried on, were seldom able, and were never permitted, to plead their own causes. (I `Rot. Parl.,' 4 a; 2' Rot. Peri.; 140.) Upon the breaking-up of the Aula Itegia into the several courts which now occupy Westminster Hall, the serjeanta-ate law becune the justices of the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and acted as advocates for the suitors, when not appointed to those offices, and when removed from them. While not employed in judicial stations, they were called serjeant-countors, servientes-narra tores, and banci narratores, countor (narrator) being a term derived from the Norman " contours," persons whose office it was to conduct the cruses of litigants in court, the verb " center " being applied indifferently to the pleadings on the part of the plaintiff and those on the part of the defendant.
It does not distinctly appear whether any grants of laud were annexed to the office of serjeant-countor ; if not, it is probable that the Conqueror, or some of his early successors, considered the fees receivable by the serjeant-justices and the serjeant-countors as equivalent to a grant of lands, and as constituting a serjeanty not attached to a tenure of land, or a serjeanty in gross. However this may be, the kings exercised the right of creating both serjeant-justices and serjeant-countors. The appointment of serjeant-countor pas, from the earliest period, been effected by the royal mandate under the great seal ; by writ, where the party to whom it was addressed was required to serve the king and his people in the Aula Regis, and afterwards in the courts of Westminster Hall ; by letters-patent, with respect to serjeantseland. Under this appointment, the serjeants were the sole public pleaders. They were the only persons in the state entrusted with the exercise of the ordinary judicial functions, and even now no person can be appointed a justice of the Queen's Bench or Common Pleas, who is net of the degree of the coif, that expression being derived from the peculiar species of cap which was, and still is, the distinguishing dress of serjeants-at-law. The barons of the Exchequer who were formerly merely officers of revenue, are not required to be taken from amongst the serjeants; but unless they were of the degree of the coif, they were not qualified to act as justices of assize. Although the serjeants on the circuit, and the queen's counsel, and occasionally other barristers, are included in the commissions of over and terminer, and jail delivery, and assist in the trying of prisoners when the judges are pressed for time, or if it is thought desirable to relieve the county from the expense arising from the detention of prosecutors and witnesses, the name of no person who is net a serjeant or queen's counsel, or possesses a patent of precedence, can be inserted in the commission of assize. Formerly no one but a serjeant was so qualified. (13 Edw. I. st. i., c 30; 13 & 14 Viet. c. 25.) Much obscurity however still hangs over the origin of the con nection between the terms serjeant and counter. It has been suggested that upon the introduction of the Norman couteurs in England, they were formed into a lay brotherhood, soinewh.at analogous in form to the religious communities by which they were surrounded ; that the members of this brotherhood were admitted by royal authority, and employed In different capacities as judges and advocates about the Aula Regis; and that they probably derived their adjunct title of servientes from the nature of their employment, and from the circum stance of their appointment being conferred by the crown, and of its being considered that the services which they rendered were of equal dignity and importance with services reserved upon those tenures by grand serjeanty to which administration of justice was attached, and the tenants of which were in strict propriety denominated serjeants.