Serjeants (except king’s serjeants) were created by writ of summons under the great seal, and wore a special and distinctive dress, the chief feature of which was the coif, a white lawn or silk skull-cap, now represented by a round piece of black silk at the top of the wig. They enjoyed a social precedence after knights bachelors and before companions of the Bath and other orders. In this they differed from queen’s counsel, who have simply professional as distinguished from social rank. Socially the serjeant had precedence, professionally the queen’s counsel, unless indeed, as was often the case, a patent of precedence was granted to the former. Till past the middle of the 19th century, a limited number of the serjeants were called “king’s (queen’s) serjeants.” They were appointed by patent and summoned to parliament. Until 1814 the two senior king’s serjeants had precedence of even the attorneygeneral and solicitor-general. It was the custom for serjeants on their appointment to give gold rings with mottoes to their colleagues. Down to 1845 the order enjoyed a very valuable monopoly of practice. The serjeants had the right of exclusive audience as leading counsel in the Court of Common Pleas. In 1834 a royal mandate of William IV. attempted to abolish this privilege, but in 1840 the judicial committee of the privy council declared the mandate informal and invalid. The monopoly was finally abolished in 1845 by Act of Parliament (9 and 10 Vict. c. 54). For at least 600 years the judges of the superior courts of common law were always serjeants. If a judge was appointed who was not a serjeant at the time of his appointment, he was formally created one immediately before his elevation to the bench. By the Judicature Act, 1873, sect. 8, no person appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice or the Court of Appeal is required to take or have taken the degree of serjeant-at-law. The serjeants had their own inn of court down to a very recent date. Serjeants’ Inn was formerly in two divisions, one in Fleet Street and one in Chancery Lane. In 1758 the members of the former joined the latter. In 1877 the latter was dissolved, the inn sold to one of the members, and the proceeds divided among the existing serjeants. The extinction of the order is now only a question of time, no serjeant having been created since 1868. It is, however, still within the discretion of the crown to create fresh serjeants if ever it should be deemed advisable to do so. In Ireland the order still exists. The three serjeants at the Irish bar have precedence next after the law officers of the crown.

See Serviens ad Legem, by Mr Serjeant Manning; The Order of the Coif, by Mr. Serjeant Pulling.