noun
definition
A parish constable, a uniformed minor (lay) official, who ushers and keeps order
definition
(ecclesiastic) an attendant to the minister
definition
A warrant officer
Examples of beadle in a Sentence
They were to be free from all toll and to elect yearly a portreeve and a beadle."
James Ellis brought a great presence to the role of Mr Bumble, the pompous parish beadle.
The viscose fiber process was due in part to Cross, Bevan and Beadle.
In 1846 Ratcliffe became a beadle at Halifax and later mace-bearer to the first mayor of the town.
As such, the beadle goes back to early Teutonic times; he was probably attached to the moot as its messenger or summoner, being under the direction of the reeve or constable of the leet.
After the Norman Conquest, the beadle seems to have diminished in importance, becoming merely the crier in the manor and forest courts, and sometimes executing processes.
From the Poor Law Act of 160r till the act of 1834 by which poor-law administration was transferred to guardians, the beadle in England was an officer of much importance in his capacity of agent for the overseers.