48. Summer Hill, Dublin, New Year's Day, 1852.
Serjeants' Rings (Vol. v., p. 59.).
—T. P. asks if the custom of serjeants-at-law presenting rings on taking the coif prevailed so long back as 1670-80; and in C. W. Johnson's Life of Sir Edward Coke, 1845 (vol. i. p. 217.), he will find as follows:
"On the rings given by Coke were inscribed, 'Lex est tutissima cassis'—the law is the safest helmet—a motto which has been thought very well to apply to his future fortunes.
"This custom of giving rings is of very old standing. Chancellor Fortescue, who wrote about 1465, tells us that all Serjeants, at their appointment, 'shall give rings of gold to the value of forty pounds at the least; and your Chancellor well remembereth that at the time he received this state and degree, the rings which he then gave stood him in fifty pounds.' (Laud. Leg., c. 59.) Dugdale also gives an account of the Serjeants' rings in 1556. Some rings given in 1669 were objected to as wanting weight."
I do not know where to refer T. P. for any record of the rings; but I think if the mottoes and names of donors could be obtained, a very amusing paper might be furnished; the variety would be great, some, as Coke's, alluding to the importance of law; some, as Serjeant Onslow's "Festina lente," punning on the name, &c.
E. N. W.
Southwark.
[We should be obliged by our correspondents furnishing any such particulars of the mottoes and donors of Serjeants' rings as they may meet with in their reading.]