Chief

A head or lord; a principal thing; a beginning, v. In chief. Chief justice: the presiding or principal judge of a court In English law. Chief baron: the presiding judge of the Court of Exchequer, answering to the chief justice of other courts, v. Baron. Chief justice of England: the chief justice of the King's Beilch. Chief lord: the immediate lord of the fee, to whom the obligation of the tenant is direct and personal. Chief rents: quit rents; rents paid by the freeholders of a manor in discharge of all services.

In old English law

Chief pledge: a headborow, or borsholder; th0 head of a decennary.

Chief justiciar, justiciar, or justiciary: a high judicial ofl Bcer and special magistrate, who presided over the aula regis of the Norman kings, and who was also the principal minister of state, the second man in the kingdom, and, by virtue of bis of Sce, guardian of the realm in the king's absence.