(serjeantia) signifies, in Law, a service that cannot be due by a tenant to any lord but the king; and this is either grand sergeantry or petit. The first is a tenure by which the one holds his lands of the king by such services as he ought to do in person to the king at his coronation, and may also concern matters military, or services of honour in peace. Petit sergeantry is where a man holds lands of the king to furnish him yearly with some small thing towards his wars, and in effect payable as rent.

Though all tenures are turned into soccage by the 12th Car. II. cap. 24, yet the honorary services of grand-sergeanty still remain, being excepted in that statute.