† quest-house Obs.
The house at which the inquests in a ward or parish were commonly held.
| 1571 Acc. St. Giles, Cripplegate in MS. Addit. 12222 [cited by Halliwell, s.v.]. 1607 Dekker & Webster Northw. Hoe i. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 12 Are all the Quest-houses broken vp? 1668 Pepys Diary 24 Jan., At the Quest House, where the company meets to the burial of my cozen Joyce. 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3239/4 At the Quest-house on Little-Tower-Hill is a Grammar-School. 1828 Nares Let. to A. Dyce, A Quest-house was the chief Watch-house in a parish... Some parishes in London still have them, e.g. St. Giles's Cripplegate. |
| fig. 1635 Quarles Embl. 102 It is a world, whose Work..Is vanity, and vexation;..A Quest-house of complaint. |
| attrib. 1628 Spelman De Sepult. (1641) 22 A Parish Audit, or a Quest-House dinner. |