Pledges

In pleading. Those persons who became sureties for the plaintiff's prosecution of the suit. Their names were anciently appended at the foot of the declaration. In time it became purely a formal matter, because the plaintiff was no longer liable to be amerced for a false claim, and the fictitious persons John Doe and Richard Roe became the universal pledges, or they might be omitted altogether (1 Tidd, Prac. 455; Archb. Civ. PI. 171), or inserted at any time before judgment (4 Johns. [N. Y.] 90), and are now omitted.