“ Socially the serjeant had precedence, professionally the king's counsel, unless indeed, as was often the case, a patent of precedence was granted to the former. The serjeants at the Irish bar had precedence next after the law officers of the crown. 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 attorney-general and solicitor-general. ”

“ For at least 600 years the judges of the superior courts of common law were always serjeants, but by the Judicature Act 1873 no person appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice or the Court of Appeal was required to take or have taken the degree of serjeant-at-law. The serjeants had their own inn of court known as Serjeants' Inn, which was formerly in two divisions, one in Fleet Street and one in Chancery Lane. ”

“ 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. ”