Pledges
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
pleading. It was anciently necessary to find pledges or sureties to prosecute a suit, and -the names of the pledges were added at the foot of the declaration; but in the course of time it became unnecessary to find such pledges because the plaintiff was no longer liable to be amerced, pro fulsa clamora, and the pledges were merely nominal persons, and now John Doe and Richard Roe are the universal pledges; but they may be omitted altogether.
1 Tidd’s Pr. 455; Arch. Civ. Pl. 171.