bailiff-errant

English

Noun

bailiff-errant (plural bailiffs-errant)

1. (now historical) An official employed by the sheriff to carry out summonses, writs etc. within the county.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The warrant straight was made, and therewithall / A Baylieffe-errant forth in post did passe […].

   • 1727, The Compleat Sheriff, page 311:

     This Return is not good, because this Arrest is the proper Arrest of the Sheriff, and no Credit is to be given to the Bailiff errant.

   • 2007, David Roffe, Decoding Domesday, page 122:

     In 1219, Gilbert le Gluton held land and an oven in Nottingham by sergeancy as a royal bailiff errant.