Dictionary

custos rotulorum en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (historical) The main justice of the peace in a given county of England, Wales or Ireland.
   • 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. 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:
2. The chief magistrate and representative of the Governor-General in a Jamaican parish.

Forms

Relateds

custos regni