Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SER'GEANT-RY, n. [sarjentry.]

In England, sergeantry of two kinds; grand sergeantry and petit sergeantry. Grand sergeantry is a particular kind of knight service, a tenure by which the tenant was bound to do some special honorary service to the king in person, as to carry his banner, his sword or the like, or to be his butler, his champion or other officer at his coronation, to lead his host, to be his marshal, to blow a horn when an enemy approaches &c. – Cowel. Blackstone. Petit sergeantry, was a tenure by which the tenant was bound to render to the king annually some small implement of war, as a bow, a pair of spurs, a sword, a lance, or the like. – Littleton.