STEWARD (senescallus, compounded of the Saxon steda, i. e. “room” or “stead,” and weard, “a ward” or “keeper”), an officer appointed in another’s stead or place, and always taken for a principal officer within his jurisdiction. Of these there are various kinds. The greatest officer under the crown is the lord high steward of England, whose office was anciently the inheritance of the earls of Leicester, till forfeited by Simon de Montfort to King Henry III. But the power of this officer is so very great, that it has not been judged safe to trust it any longer in the hands of a subject, excepting only for a particular occasion; as to officiate at a coronation, or at the arraignment of a nobleman for high treason or felony. During his office, the steward bears a white staff in his hand; and when the trial is ended, he breaks the staff, and with it his commission expires. There is likewise a lord steward of the king’s household, who is the chief officer of the king’s court, has the care of the king’s house, and authority over all the officers and servants of the household, except such as belong to the chapel, chamber, and stable.

The court of the lord high steward of Great Britain, is a court instituted for the trial of peers indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either. When such an indictment is found by a grand jury of freeholders in the king’s bench, or at the assizes before the justices of oyer and terminer, it is to be removed by a writ of certiorari into the court of the lord high steward, which has the only power to determine it. A peer may plead a pardon before the court of king’s bench, and the judges have power to allow it, in order to prevent the trouble of appointing a high steward merely for the purpose of receiving such plea; but he may not plead in that inferior court any other plea, as guilty or not guilty of the indictment, but only in this court;[7:20:723] because, in consequence of such plea, it is possible that judgment of death might be awarded against him. The king, therefore, in case a peer be indicted of treason, felony, or misprision, creates a lord high steward pro hac vice by commission under the great seal; which recites the indictment so found, and gives his Grace power to receive and try it secundum legem et consuetudinem Anglia. During the session of parliament the trial of an indicted peer is not properly in the court of the lord high steward, but before the court of our lord the king in parliament. It is true, a lord high steward is always appointed in that case, to regulate and add weight to the proceedings; but he is rather in the nature of a speaker pro tempore, or chairman of the court, than the judge of it; for here the collective body of the peers are the judges both of law and fact, and the high steward has a vote with the rest in right of his peerage. But in the court of the lord high steward, which is held in the recess of parliament, he is the sole judge of matters of law, as the lords triors are in matters of fact; and as they may not interfere with him in regulating the proceedings of the court, so he has no right to intermix with them in giving any vote upon the trial. In the conviction and attainder of a peer for murder in full parliament, it has therefore been held by the judges, that in case the day appointed in the judgment for execution should lapse before execution done, a new time of execution may be appointed by either the high court of parliament during its sitting, though no high steward be existing, or, in the recess of parliament, by the court of king’s bench, the record being removed into that court.