custos rotulorum

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin custos rotulorum, from Latin custōs (“custos, keeper”) + genitive plural of rotulus (“roll”).

Noun

custos rotulorum (plural custodes rotulorum)

1. (now historical) The main justice of the peace in a given county of England, Wales or Ireland. [from 15th c.]
   • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, pages 35–36:

     Mr Casaubon made a dignified though somewhat sad audience; […] mindful that this desultoriness was associated with the institutions of the country, and that the man who took him on this severe mental scamper was not only an amiable host, but a landholder and custos rotulorum.

2. The chief magistrate and representative of the Governor-General in a Jamaican parish. [from 17th c.]

Related terms

• custos regni