PLEDGES

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PLEDGES, pleading. It was anciently necessary to find pledges or sureties to 
  prosecute a suit, and the names of the pledges were added at the foot of the 
  declaration; but in the course of time it became unnecessary to find such 
  pledges because the plaintiff was no longer liable to be amerced, pro falsa 
  clamora, and the pledges were merely nominal persons, and now John Doe and 
  Richard Roe are the universal pledges; but they may be omitted altogether; 1 


  Tidd's. Pr. 455; Arch. Civ. Pl. 171; or inserted at any time before 
  judgment. 4 John. 190.