Obs. [f. Obs. [f. COUPLE v. 3 + BEGGAR.] A disreputable priest who made it his business to ‘couple’ beggars or perform irregular marriages.
1702. Wilmslow Parish Reg., in Earwaker, E. Cheshire (1877), I. 99. Were lately married by a couple begger.
1725. Swift, Poems, Riddle. No Couple-Beggar in the Land E’er join’d such Numbers Hand in Hand.
1744. Faulkener’s Jrnl., 6–9 Oct., in Lecky, Eng. in 18th C. (1878), II. 369. This last term a notorious couple beggar … was excommunicated … by the Vicar-General of this diocese, on account of his persisting in this scandalous trade, which he had taken up, to the undoing of many good families.
