catchpoll


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catch·pole

also catch·poll (kăch′pōl′, kĕch′-)
n.
A sheriff's officer, especially one who arrests debtors.
[Middle English cacchepol, from Norman French cachepol, probably from Old French chacepol : chacier, to chase; see chase1 + poul, rooster (from Latin pullus, chicken; see pau- in Indo-European roots).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
John Passheley, a broiderer, was one of several parishioners who stepped in to thwart John Kirkeham, catchpoll of London, from dragging a sanctuary man from St Martin's; Kirkeham got his revenge by suing a false trespass against Passheley.
Sacred people, sacred spaces: evidence of parish respect and contempt toward the pre-reformation clergy

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