bail piece

BAIL PIECE. A certificate given by a judge or the clerk of the court, or 
other person authorized to keep the record, in which it is certified that A 
B, the bail, became bail, for C D, the defendant, in a certain sum, and in a 
particular case. It was the practice formerly, to write these certificates 
upon small pieces of parchment, in the following form: (See 3 Bl. Com. 
Appendix.) 

In the Court of ______________, of the Term of ________, in the year of our 
Lord, ____________, ________________City and County of ________________, ss. 
Theunis Thew is delivered to bail upon the taking of his body, to Jacobus 
Vanzant, of the city of_________________, merchant, and to John Doe, of the 
same city, yeoman. SMITH, JR. At the suit of Attorney for Deft. PHILIP 
CARSWELL. Taken and acknowledged the ____ day of _______, A. D. _____, 
before me. D. H. 

     2. As the bail is supposed to have the custody of the defendant, when 
he is armed with this process, he may arrest the latter, though he is out of 
the jurisdiction of the court in which he became bail, and even in a 
different state. 1 Baldw. 578; 3 Com. 84, 421; 2 Yeates, 263 8 pick. 138; 7 
John. 145; 3 Day, 485. The bail may take him even while attending court as a 
suitor, or any time, even on Sunday. 4 Yeates, 123; 4 Conn. 170. He may 
break even an outer door to seize him; and command the assistance of the 
sheriff or other officers; 8 Pick. 138; and depute his power to others.. 1 
John. Cas. 413; 8 Pick. 140. See 1 Serg. & R. 311.