[ad. med.L. constabulāria, f. constabul-us: see -ARY.]
† 1. The office of a constable; constableship.
1587. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1597), 83 b. Constabularies, and Baillieries of our proper lands and Castelles.
1746–7. Act 20 Geo. II., c. 43 § 2. All heretable constabularies, other than the office of high constable of Scotland.
2. A district under a constable; a constablewick.
1631. Star Chamb. Cases (Camden), 68. One Francis Bridge, being Constable of Walson … was present, this being within his constabulary.
1791. Mackintosh, Vind. Gall., Wks. 1846, III. 20. The constituent assemblies of the several provinces, bailliages, and constabularies of the [French] kingdom.
1813. N. Carlisle, Topog. Dict. Scot., II. (Haddington). It continued a Constabulary at the Restoration.
3. The organized body of constables or peace officers of a country or specified district.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxiv. The day-scholars … had hooted the beadle, and pelted the constabulary.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 335/1. To correct the various evils incident to the constitution of the present rural constabulary, the magistrates of Cheshire, in 1829 … obtained an Act which authorized them to appoint and direct a paid constabulary.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 38. Those who … would maintain churches on the same principle on which they maintain the county constabulary.
