Master

A designation bestowed on persons in several distinct relations or offices, authorized to control others. Master and apprentice. In the relation of apprenticeship, the master is the party to whom the apprentice is indentured. He engages to maintain him for the term prescribed, and to teach him his trade, and to do other things enumerated in the indentures. He stands in loco parentis to the apprentice. See Apprentice. Master in chancery. The title of an officer in courts of chancery whose functions are to assist the chancellor in ters referred to him by the chancery judges, to take accounts and compute damages; also to take oaths, affidavits, and acknowledgments of deeds and recognizances. The term is less used than formerly, the office, in that particular form, having been in many jurisdictions discontinued. Clerks, commissioners, and referees now perform many matters formerly entrusted to masters. The masters in chancery were officers whose duty it was to make inquiries, when so required by the court, into matters which, from the constitution of the court, it could not conveniently, without the assistance of such officers, make for itself, and to report to the court their findings or conclusions with respect to such matters. The duties of these masters were of a mixed character, being partly judicial and partly ministerial, the powers which they possessed in both respects having been delegated to them by the court. Whenever a master had acted in obedience to the directions of the«court, he used to inform the court, by a document in writing, of what he had done, or what conclusion he had come to; and, in most cases, this document was called the master's report. The masters in chancery, in addition to their ordinary functions, acted as messengers from the house of lords to the house of commons. There were also certain other officers of the court of chancery, called masters extraordinary in chancery. These were usually sohcitors who were appointed by the court to act in the various counties of England in taking affidavits, acknowledgments of deeds, recognizances, &c., which otherwise would have had to be taken before the masters in London, and would thus have occasioned to the suitors loss of time and expense in coming to London for that purpose. The duties formerly discharged by the masters in ordinary in chancery are now discharged by the chief clerks attached to the offices of the various judges; those formerly discharged by the masters extraordinary are now disoharged by solicitors qualified as commissioners for taking oaths throughout the kingdom.

Broum

Master at common law. The title of officers of the English superior courts of common law appointed to record the proceedings of the court to which they belong; to superintend the issue of writs and the formal proceedings in an action; to receive and account for the fees charged on legal proceedings, and moneys paid into court. There are five to each court. They are appointed under Stat. 7 Wm. IV. & 1 Vict, eh.

30, passed in 1837.

Mozky ^ W. Master of the crown of Gce. The title of the queen's coroner and attorney in the criminal department of the court of informer, the crown being the nominal prosecutor.

Wharton.

Master in lunacy. The masters' in lunacy are judicial officers appointed by the lord chancellor for the purpose of conducting inquiries into the state of mind of persons alleged to be lunatics. Such inquiries usually take place before a jury.

2 Steph. Com. 511-513.

Master's report, in equity practice, signifies the formal statement made by a master of his decision on any question referred to him, or of any facts or action he has been directed to ascertain or take. Master of the rolls. One of the judges of the English court of chancei-y, as it was formerly constituted, whose jurisdiction is now transferred to the supreme court of judicature. He was originally one of the masters in chancery; and his earliest judicial attendances seem to have been merely as assessor to the chancellor, with the other masters. He is called master of the rolls in Stat. H Hen. VII. ch. 18; and his character as an independent judge was fully established in the reigii of George II. He has been ranked next after the lord chief justice of the queen's bench, and above the lord chief justice of the common pleas, the lord chief baron of the exchequer, and the lords justices of appeal in chancery, though the latter sat as judges to hear appeals from his decisions. Master and servant. In former English law, this was a relation quite distinctly marked and regulated; but, throughout the United States at the present day, master in this connection means little else than employer. Master of a ship. The title of the officer first in command of a vessel in the merchant service. The master's authority over a merchant ship is similar to that of the captain on board a vessel of war; and the title captain is often applied to him. For a mention of many other officers known to former English law under the title of master, see Jacob's, Tomlins', and Wharton's dictionaries.