G.
The custom of Serjeants-at-law presenting rings on their creation was used in (and probably before) the reign of Henry VI. (See Fortescue De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, cap. 50,; and see instances and particulars in the reigns at Henry VIII., Edward VI., Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth in Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 2nd edit., pp. 116. 118. 122. 123. 124. 130.) Mottoes were used as early as 1606, but I am not prepared to say they originated at that period, though I do not observe any mention of them in Dugdale's accounts of the ceremonies at the creation of Serjeants of an earlier date. The following mottoes may interest some of your readers:
Sir Edward Coke, 1606. Lex est tutissima cassis.
Sir John Walter and Sir Thomas Trevor, 1625. Regi legi servire libertas.
Sir Henry Yelverton, 1625. Stat lege corona.
Sir Robert Berkeley, 1627. Lege Deus et rex.
Robert Callis, 1627. Regis oracula legis.
Sir George Vernon, 1627. Rex legis regnique patronus.
Sir James Weston, 1631. Servus regi serviens legi.
Sir Robert Heath, 1631. Lex regis vis regis.