(noun) – Latin: In the civil law. A person with whom two or more contending parties deposited the subject matter of the controversy.
(verb) – In the civil law. To renounce or disclaim, etc. As when a widow came into court and disclaimed having anything to do with her deceased husband’s estate, she was said to sequester. The word more commonly signifles the act of taking in execution under a writ of sequestration. Brown. To deposit a thing which is the subject of a controversy in the hands of a third person, to hold for the contending parties. To take a thing which is the subject of a controversy out of the possession of the contending parties, and deposit it in the hands of a third person. Calvin.
In equity practice. To take possession of the property of a defendant, and hold in the custody of the court, until he purges himself of a contempt. In. English ecclesiastical practice. To gather and take care of the fruits and profits of a vacant benefice, for the benefit of the next incumbent. In international law. To confiscate; to appropriate private property to public use; to seize the property of the private citizens of a hostile power, as when a belligerent nation sequesters debts due from its own subjects to the enemy. See 1 Kent, Comm. 62.