Extracted From:
  A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
  by John Bouvier, CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA

MASTER. This word has several meanings. 

1. Master is one who has control over a servant or apprentice. A master stands
in relation to his apprentices, in loco parentis, and is bound to fulfill that
relation, which the law generally enforces. He is also entitled to be obeyed by
his apprentices, as if they were his children....

2. Master is one who is employed in teaching children, known generally as a
schoolmaster; as to his powers, see Correction. 

3. Master is the name of an officer: as, the ship Benjamin Franklin, whereof A B
is master; the master of the rolls; master in chancery, &c. 

4. By master is also understood a principal who employs another to perform some
act or do something for him. The law having adopted the maxim of the civil law,
qui facit per alium facit per se; the agent is but an instrument, and the master
is civilly responsible for the act of his agent, as if it were his own, when he
either commands him to do an act, or puts him in a condition, of which such act
is a result, or by the absence of due care and control, either previously in the
choice of his agent, or immediately in the act itself, negligently suffers him
to do an injury....

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