The Mace. 
The use of the Mace, as a ceremonial symbol of office and 
authority, cannot be traced to so high an antiquity as that of the 
Sword of State. Its prototype is, doubtless, to be found in the 
oflPensive and defensive weapon or baton which the constable or 
ordinary peace-ofidcer was authorised by the law, or ex virUite officii, 
to carry for the purpose of assisting him in the exercise of his 
functions. 
In early times the personal guard of our sovereigns consisted of 
serjeants-at-arms carrying maces before the King. The maces 
borne by the serjeants-at-arms, originally of silver or some inferior 
metal, were subsequently made ornamental, by being gilded and 
decorated with the crown and armorial ensigns of royaltj^, but such 
were not allowed to be used unless by the order or permission of 
the sovereign himself, or of the high court of Parliament, or the 
courts of the chancery or treasury. The officers appointed to bear 
maces of this description were styled serjeants-at-mace \servientes 
ad clavam~\. 
At the annual election of mayor of the city of York in 1365, 
[3rd February, 39th Edw. III.], the Corporation appointed John 
de Moreby to be the mayor’s serjeant [servientem majoris~\. This is 
the earliest recorded instance of an officer having been assigned 
specially to attend upon the chief magistrate. Whether he were 
provided with a mace differing in any way from those used by the 
ordinary serjeants-at-mace does not appear. 
According to the traditionary account, as it has been transmitted 
to us by Mr. Drake and other local historians, the first ceremonial 
mace used by the Corporation of York was presented to the citizens 
by King Pichard II., in the year 1392, during the third mayoralty 
of Pobert Sauvage.f There seems to be no reason to doubt the 
* Servientes de armis. Tho. de Walsingham—-jo. 316. Les sergens d'armes 
sont lesMaciers que le roy a en son office, qui portent Maces devant le roy’' Ducange 
in voce. 
t Eobert Sauvage, a wealthy merchant, lived in the parish of All Saints’, 
North-street. He was mayor in 1385, and represented the city in Parliament 
in the year 1386. He was Lord Mayor in 1391, and again in the following year. 
He died in 1398, and by his will, which bears date the 21st of August, 1391, he 
desired that his body might be buried before the altar of St. Nicholas, in the 
church of All Saints’, North-street, near the remains of Wm. Sauvage, who 
was mayor in 1369. He bequeathed to his son, Thomas Sauvage, 20 marks 
sterling, to provide for him at the University for four years; to a kinsman he 
bequeathed a murrhine cup with a silver stand, and a psalter in which the 
testator used to read diebus pharascJieph<x. — Eeg. Test., III., 17. 
