In feudal law. The vassals of a lord who sat in his court as judges of their co-vassals, and were called “peers,” as being each other’s equals, or of the same condition. The nobility of Great Britain, being the lords temporal having seats in parliament , and including dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons. Equals; those who are a man’s equals in rank and station; this being the meaning in the phrase “trial by a jury of his peers.”
« PEERESS
