Serjeant at law

A barrister of the common-law couris of high standing, and of much the same rank as a doctor of law is in the ecolesiastical courts. These serjeants seem to have derived their title from the old knights templar, (among whom there existed a peculiar class under the denomination of "fr&ret tergens," or "fratres servientes,") 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 practiced in the court of common pleas, and until a recent period (the 25th of April, 1834, 9 & 10 Viet. c. 54) the serjeants at law always had the exclnsive 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 serjeant at law; but since the judicature act this is no longer necessary.

Brown.