Sequester

In modern use, to take into judicial custody, pending a controversy. Sequestration: the name of a remedy used in chancery and ecclesiastical com'ts, whereby property is taken into the custody of the court, to secure it pending a controversy, or to enforce obedience to the order of the court, or for like purpose. Sequestrator: one of persons appointed to take The principal meaning of sequestration is the separating or setting aside a thing in contro Tersy from the possession of both the parties that contend for it; and it is twofold, Toluntary and necessary: voluntary is that which is done by consent of each party; necessary, is what the judge of his authority doth, whether the party will or not. Jacob. Sequestration, in its most ordinary sense, signifies a kind of execution for debt, and is most frequently used against a beneficed clerk or clergyman. In this case, the plaintiff sues out a Jieri facias de bonis ecclesiasticis, directed to the bishop of the diocese, commanding him to make of the ecclesiastical goods and chattels belonging to the defendant within his diocese the sum mentioned in the writ. This writ is taken to the registrar of the diocese, who thereupon issues a sequestration, which is in the nature of a warrant directed to the church-wardens, requiring them to levy the debt of the tithes and other profits of the defendant's benefice. Sequestrktion also issues in chancery when a defendant has eluded the process of the court, and a commission of rebellion has been awarded against him to no effect; by virtue of which sequestration his personal estate, and the profits of his real, are seized and detained until the defendant obeys the commands of the court. The word sequestration is used also to signify the act of the ordinary in disposing of the goods and chattels of a deceased person whose estate no man would meddle with. It is also used to signify the gathering, collecting, and taking care of the fruits and profits of a vacant benefice for the benefit of the next incumbent. Brown. Sequestrari facias de bonis ecclesiasticis. That you cause to be sequestered of ecclesiastical goods. These are the emphatic words, and also constitute the name, of a writ of execution, in English practice, in an action against a beneficed clergyman, commanding the bishop to enter into the rectory and parish church, and take and sequester the same, until of the rents, tithes, and profits thereof, and of the other ecclesiastical goods of the defendant, he have levied the plaintiff's debt. This writ is in the nature of a levari facias. It is retained in the practice under the judicature acts. SERGEANT; or SERJEANT. The style or title of several officers. The terra is more in use in England than in this country. In the army, the sergeant is an inferior officer attached to each company, exercises, and to direct them in forming ranks, files, &c.

Sergeant-at-arms.

There seem to be in England many officers bearing this title, and holding office by appointment from the crown; but those best known are two, who, by royal permission, attend on the two houses of parliament. The one assigned to the house of lords is charged to attend upon the chancellor with the mace, and to execute the orders of the house for the apprehension of delinquents; and in the commons, the sergeant attends upon the speaker with the mace, carries messages from the bar to the table, and executes the orders of the house with respect to delinquents to be taken into custody for breaches of its privileges. There is also a sergeant-at-arms belonging to the court of chancery, whose duty it is to apprehend such persons as are guilty of contempt of court, &o. In the United States congi-ess and in several of the state legislatures there are sergeants-at-arms, whose duties are closely copied from those of the sergeants attending parliament.

Sergeant-at-la'w.

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 sergeants seem to have derived their title from the old knights templars (amongst whom there existed a peculiar class under the denomination of frires sergens, or fratres sermentes}, and to have continued as a separate fraternity from a very early period in the history of the legal profession. The barristers who first assumed the old monastic title were those who practised in the court of common pleas, and until a very recent period (the 25th of April, 1834, 9 & 10 Vict. ch. 54) the sergeants-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 sergeant-atlaw; but since the judicature act, this is no longer necessary. Brown.

Sergeants' Inn

Was formerly called Faryndon Inn, near Chancery Lane, and is a law society to which the sergeants belong. In the hall of this inn, during term, the judges and sergeants dine together; and there the judges sit as visitors of the inns of court.

3 Steph. Com. (6th ed.) 387, note.