The Common Serjeant of London (full title The Serjeant-at-Law in the Common Hall) is an ancient British
legal office, first recorded in 1291, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the
Central Criminal Court after the
Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.
He is also one of the High Officers of the
City of London Corporation, and must undertake certain civic obligations alongside his judicial duties: each Midsummer he presides at the election of
Sheriffs in the
Guildhall, and each Michaelmas he plays a key role in the ceremonial election of the
Lord Mayor.[1] He presents the Sheriffs to the
King's Remembrancer at the annual
Quit Rents ceremony, and is in attendance on most other major ceremonial occasions.[2]
The Common Serjeant is appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the
Lord Chancellor.
Formerly, the Common Serjeant of London was a legal officer of the City Corporation of London. The Common Serjeant of London attended on the
Lord Mayor of London and the
Court of Aldermen on court days, and acted with them in council. He also attended the Court of Aldermen and
Common Council, and had charge of the Orphans' Estates[3]
Judge Richard Marks, KC, was appointed the 81st Common Serjeant on 3 March 2015.
^The Book of Dignities: Containing Rolls of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time ... Together with the Sovereigns of Europe, from the Foundation of Their Respective States; the Peerage of England and Great Britain ... by Joseph Haydn and Joseph Timothy Haydn Published by Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851
^Dickens, Henry Fielding The Recollections of Sir Henry Dickens, KC William Heinemann Ltd, London (1934) pg 277