beadle, n.
(ˈbiːd(ə)l)
Forms: 1 bydel, 2–4 budel (y), bedele, 3 bidell, 4 bidel, (Sc. badal), 5 bydelle, beddell, (betille), 6 beedle, bedyl(l, 6–7 bedelle, bedle, 9 beadel, (Sc. beddal); 2–9 bedel, 4–9 bedell, 7– beadle.
[Originally OE. bydel (= MDu. *bödel, Du. beul, OHG. butil, MHG. bütel, Ger. büttel):—OTeut. *budilo-z, derivative of biud-an, in OE. béodan, OHG. biotan to offer, present, deliver, announce, command. Some form of the Teutonic was adopted in Romanic: cf. It. bidello, Pr., Sp., OF. bedel, F. bédeau, med.L. bidellus, bedellus; and in ME. the Fr. form bedel gradually superseded the native bydel. The ordinary modern spelling is beadle, but the archaic forms beadel, bedel, bedell, are in use in specific senses.]
† 1. One who makes a proclamation (on behalf of another); a herald. Obs.
| c 1000 ælfric Ex. xxxii. 5 Aaron..het bydelas beodan and þus cweþan. c 1200 Ormin 632 Cristess bidell Sannt Johan. a 1300 Cursor M. 11006 Sent him forwit his bedele, For-þi sent iesus iohn forwith. c 1440 Gesta Rom. 15 Whenne the bedell hadde y-makid this proclamacion. 1535 Coverdale Dan. iii. 4 The bedell cried out with all his might. 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 124 Proclaimed liberty by the Beadle to many of the parts of Greece. |
† b. The crier or usher of a law-court; a town-crier. Obs.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 8 If a bedel, or criare, schewe þe fre graunt of his lord. c 1432–50 tr. Higden (1865) I. 247 A bydelle, or the crier of the cite ascendede in to a towre..and seyde so mony tymes, ‘Calo, calo.’ 1691 Blount Law Dict., Bedel, a Crier or Messenger of a court. |
2. One who delivers the message or executes the mandates of an authority: † a. generally. Obs.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 95 Þes budeles word. Ibid. 117 Þe biscop..godes budel is. c 1220 Leg. St. Kath. 1928 A burhreue..þæt wes þe deoules budel. c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. 1871 II. 100 Þei be trewe bedelis to telle it. c 1440 Gesta Rom. 364 Dethe is the messynger of the hie Emperour..and..the betille of hym that made hevyn and Erth. c 1450 Lydg. St. Albon (1534) G j b, As a bedyll to brynge you tydyng. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge (1848) 39 This wycked Werebode, the bedyll of Belyall. |
† b. spec. A messenger of justice, a warrant officer; an under-bailiff; a tipstaff. Obs.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xii. 58 Þe-læs he þé sylle þam..bydele, and se bydel þe sende on cwertern. a 1300 Havelok 266 Schireues he sette, bedels, and greyues..To yemen wilde wodes and pathes Fro wicke men. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iii. 60 Budels and bailifs · and brokours of chaffare. c 1500 God Speed Plough 37 Bayllys and bedelles..to doo vs sorowe Inough. 1591 Lambarde Arch. (1635) 38 Burgesses Serjeants and Beadles have their Courts within every their particular limits. 1628 Coke On Litt. 234 b, The oath of a Bedell of a Mannor is, that he shall duly and truly execute all such Attachements and other Proces as shall be directed to him from the Lord or Steward of his Court. |
† c. An under-officer of the Forest Courts. Obs.
| 1598 J. Manwood Lawes Forest xxi. §4 (1615) 206 A Bedle is an officer or seruant of the Forest that doth make all manner of garnishments of the Courts of the Forest, and also all manner of Proclamations as well within the Courts of the Forest as without. 1647 Haward Crown Rev. 48 Bedle of the Forrest: Fee, {pstlg}9 2s. 6d. 1700 Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 819 No Forester or Bedell..shall make any Ale-shots, or Collect Sheafs of Corn. |
3. An apparitor or precursor who walks officially in front of dignitaries, a mace-bearer; a. spec. in the English universities (at present conventionally spelt bedel, -ell,) the name of certain officials, formerly of two ranks distinguished as esquire bedels and yeomen bedels, having various functions as executive officers of the University. Their duties are now chiefly processional: at Oxford there are four, the junior- or sub-bedel being the official attendant of the Vice-chancellor, before whom he bears a silver staff or mace; at Cambridge there are two, called esquire-bedells, both of whom officially walk in front of the Vice-chancellor with maces.
| a 1300 Cursor M. (Cott.) 12914 Als bedel gais be-for iustis. 1562 Petition in Strype Ann. Ref. I. i. xxx. 342 The beadles and other officers, belonging to either of the Universities. 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 11461 One of the bedels named maister Adams, came weeping to him, & praied him to shift for himselfe. 1641 Laud Hist. Chanc. Oxf. 132 (T.) If the university would bring in some bachelors of Art to be yeomen-bedels..they which thrived well and did good service, might after be preferred to be esquire-bedels. a 1763 Shenstone Odes (1765) 206 When college-students take degrees, And pay the beadle's endless fees. 1797 Cambr. Univ. Cal. 143 Esquire Bedells. The Bedells are officers for life, they must be men of learning, and have taken the degree of A.M. 1826–7 Act 7 & 8 Geo. IV, lxxv. in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm. 144 The Proctors and Bedels for the time being. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 280 The registrar and bedells waited on Francis. |
b. The apparitor of a trades guild or company.
| 1389 Eng. Gilds (1870) 35 He [the Alderman] ssal sende forthe þe bedel to alle þe breþeren and þe systeren. 1514 Ibid. 144 To be paid yerely..to the beddell of the seid Gilde, Tuppens. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. I. 541 He received aid from his Company, and was ultimately appointed their beadle. |
4. An inferior parish officer appointed by the vestry to keep order in church, punish petty offenders, and act as the servitor or messenger of the parish generally; a parish constable.
| 1594 1st Pt. Contention (1843) 23 Have you not Beadles in your town? ? c 1600 Distracted Emp. v. iii. in Old Pl. (1884) III. 248 Let the Bedle..with..his owne whypp medle, And lashe theym soundlye. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 509 ¶2 The unlucky boys with toys and balls were whipped away by a beadle. 1818 Hazlitt Eng. Poets v. (1870) 128 If Bloomfield is too much of the farmer's boy, Crabbe is too much of the parish beadle. 1845 Stephen Laws Eng. II. 701 A beadle..whose business is to attend the vestry, to give notice of its meetings to the parishioners, and execute its orders &c. 1857 Toulm. Smith Parish 55 A printed copy of the notice calling each Vestry, shall be left by the Beadel at every house in the Parish. |
b. In Scotland the duties of the beadle or ‘church-officer’ are more especially connected with attending upon the clergyman; he may be also sexton.
| c 1860 Ramsay Remin. i. 6 The beddal and parish oracle. 1884 Rogers Soc. Life Scot. I. v. 163 At Allsa the beadle's fee for the funeral bell was thirteen shillings and fourpence. |
† 5. fig. (referring to the punitive functions of the beadle.) Obs.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 189 Her iniurie the Beadle to her sinne. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres ii. 33 Fear, the Beadle of the law, terrified them from the beginning. 1797 Godwin Enquirer i. ix. 84 He is the beadle to chastise their follies. |
6. Comb., as beadle-office; beadle-watched adj.
| 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. III. xxxviii., A narrow, beadle-watched portal. 1877 E. Thomas Lange's Materialism (1880) II. 245 The magnificent abstraction..performed the meanest beadle-offices long enough to excite a universal distrust of philosophy. |