Exchequer

Forms: 3–6 escheker(e, (4 eschekkere, 4–5 ess-, estcheker), 5–7 eschequer, -eer, excheker, -yr, (6 escheaquer, eschequier, -our, 7 exchecker), 6– exchequer. [ME. escheker, a. OF. eschequier (mod.F. échiquier) = It. scaccario, med.L. scaccārium chess-board, f. scacc-us check, scacchi chess: see -ARIUM, -ER. The modern exchequer is a literary corruption, caused by mistaking es- in this word for the OF. es- :—L. ex-, as in eschange, L. excambium, now EXCHANGE, esploit, L. explicitum, now EXPLOIT, etc. When these words were refashioned after L. analogies, escheker was ignorantly altered in the same way. For the derivation see CHEQUER, CHECK.]

  † I.  1. A chess-board; = CHEQUER sb.¹ 1. To play at (to) the escheker: to play at chess. Obs.

a. 1300.  Floriz & Bl., 344. He wule come þe nier And bidde þe pleie at þe escheker. Whane þescheker is forþ ibroȝt Biþute panes ne plei þu noȝt.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 2224. Þo þat willieþ to leue at hame pleyeþ to þe eschekkere.

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, MS. Soc. Antiq. 134 fol. 263 (Halliw.). And alle be hit that in that place square Of the listes, I mene the estcheker.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 135. Ther ben as many poyntes in the eschequer voyde as fulle.

  II.  The King’s Exchequer.

  2.  Under the Norman and Angevin kings of England: An office or department of state managed by the Treasurer, the Justiciary and the other judges of the King’s Court, and certain Barons appointed by the King. Its functions combined the collection and administration of the royal revenues with the judicial determination of all causes relating to revenue. In the subsequent development of this institution, it was gradually divided into two distinct branches, the one being charged with judicial, the other with administrative functions: see 3, 4.

  The name originally referred to the table covered with a cloth divided into squares, on which the accounts of the revenue were kept by means of counters. It is disputed whether the application of the word to the treasury and the tribunal connected with it originated in Normandy, or whether it was imported into Normandy from England. After Normandy became part of France, the supreme court of law in that province continued to bear the name of eschequier until the reign of Francis I., when this name was superseded by that of parlement.

[1292.  Britton, I. i. § 9. Ausi volums nous, qe a nos Eschekers a Westmoster et aylours eynt nos Thresorers et nos Barouns illucs jurisdiccioun.

1332.  Literæ Cantuarienses (Rolls), cccclv. I. 480. Noz seriantz … vienent a Canterbire a nostre Eschekier pur loure acounte rendre.]

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 280. To Berwik cam þe kynge eschekere, Sir Hugh of Cressyngham he was chancelere, Walter of Admundesham he was tresorere.

1875.  Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xi. 377. The Exchequer of the Norman kings was the court in which the whole financial business of the country was transacted.

  b.  Chancellor of the Exchequer: an officer originally appointed in the reign of Henry III. as assistant to the treasurer; now the responsible finance minister of the United Kingdom: see CHANCELLOR 3.

  c.  Exchequer of the Jews (L. scaccarium Judæorum): in the thirteenth century, a department of the Exchequer that had charge of the collection of the revenues exacted from the Jews. (See C. Gross Exchequer of the Jews in Papers read at the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1887.)

  3.  (More fully Court of Exchequer, Exchequer of Pleas.) A court of law, historically representing the Anglo-Norman exchequer in its judicial capacity. By the Judicature Act of 1873 it was converted into ‘The Exchequer Division’ of the High Court of Justice, and by Order in Council in 1881 this was merged in the Queen’s Bench Division.

  The jurisdiction of the court was theoretically confined to matters of revenue, but in practice was gradually extended to all kinds of cases (except ‘real actions’) by means of the legal fiction that the wrong suffered by the plaintiff had rendered him unable to pay his debts to the king. In addition to its jurisdiction at common law, the court had a jurisdiction in equity, abolished in 1841. In its latest form it consisted of the Chief Baron and five judges, called the Barons of the Exchequer; the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in theory a member of it, and was entitled to a voice in its decisions when it sat in equity.

1489–90.  Plumpton Corr., 90. Your matter in the Excheker is grevous; there is iij wryttes agaynst you.

a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., V. vi. (1847), 85. For sure I will put you vp into the Eschequer.

1661.  J. Stephens, Procurations, 34. It is an hundred years since the Certificate upon the Commission of Melius inquirendum concerning Ecclesiasticall Livings was returned into the Exchequer.

1732.  Pope, Hor. Sat., II. ii. 130. The Temple late two brother Serjeants saw … One lull’d th’ Exchequer, and one stunn’d the Rolls.

1816.  J. Manning (title), The Practice of the Exchequer of Pleas.

1827.  [see ESTREAT v. 1].

  fig.  1814.  Scott, Wav., xxiv. I cannot call you into Exchequer, if you do not think proper to read my narrative.

  b.  As the designation of analogous courts in Scotland and Ireland: see quots. The Exchequer of Scotland was abolished in 1856 (19 and 20 Vict. c. 6), its functions being transferred to the Court of Session.

1816.  Encycl. Perth., IX. 204/2. The court of exchequer in Scotland has the same privileges and jurisdiction as that of England.

1833.  Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 13. All the Powers at present exercised by the said Barons of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland shall from and after the passing of this Act cease and determine.

  4.  The office or department of the public service, which is charged with the receipt and custody of the moneys collected by the several departments of revenue.

  In early use not distinguished from TREASURY; but the department of state called the Treasury has not since the 15th century exercised directly the function etymologically indicated by its name. The office charged with the custody of the revenues was in theory a branch of the Court of Exchequer (see 3), and was sometimes called the Lower Exchequer, the Exchequer of Receipt, or Receipt of Exchequer, to distinguish it from the judicial branch (Exchequer of Pleas). By the Exchequer and Audit Act 1866, the offices of Comptroller of the Exchequer and Auditor General, and the departments over which they presided, were united.

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 68. Syn thou maist not be paied in the escheker.

c. 1460.  Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 42. The expensys of which Houshold may sone be estemyd … by the Clerks of the Escheker.

1555.  Eden, Decades, 133 b. The fyfthe portion dewe to the kynges Excheker.

1574.  trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 33 b. To bee one of his [the kynges] chamberlaines of his receite of his Eschequer.

1601.  F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II., § 4 (1876), 7. The Contrerollour ought to keepe a countre-roll against the tresorer of the warderobe … & testefy it in thexcheker uppon the thresorers account.

1638.  Dk. Hamilton, in H. Papers (Camden), 54. Itt onlie restheth hou he shall be payed, for in your excheker heire ther is none.

1672.  Cowell, Interpr., s.v., The other [part of the court] is called The Receit of the Exchequer, which is properly employed in the receiving and paying of Money.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Exchequer is more particularly used for a chamber, or apartment, in Westminster-hall, consisting of two parts … the lower Exchequer.

1788.  Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. lxiv. 514. The money is lying in the exchequer to discharge the interest of the old debt.

1876.  Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. vi. 370. His [Grenville’s] desire was for solid and sure places, a tellership in the exchequer or the profits of a light-house.

  b.  The Exchequer: short for ‘the contents of the Exchequer.’

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), I. 2/1. The exchequer being so exhausted with the debts of king James.

1671.  C. Hatton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 62. Y^e exchequer is at soe low an ebbe.

  5.  In extended sense: A royal or national treasury.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Ad ærarium rationes has referre, to bring in his accompt to the escheker.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXIV. xxiv. 525. The souldiours were … dayly mainteined and fed out of the kings eschequer.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 222. The exchequer for Hungary is kept at Presburg.

1783.  Watson, Philip III. (1839), 221. For the benefit of his exchequer, he might sell the rest for slaves to his Christian subjects in Spain and Italy.

1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 471. A surplus revenue and an unembarrassed exchequer.

1855.  Prescott, Philip II., I. ii. (1857), 19. It seemed to his Spanish subjects that he rarely visited them, except when his exchequer required to be replenished.

  b.  fig. (Common in 17th c.; now rare.)

1589.  Nashe, Greenes Arcadia, Pref. (1610), A iv b. The Exchequer of eloquence, sir Iohn Cheeke. Ibid. (1596), Saffron Walden, 75. He would … bee a more rare Exchequer of the Muses, than rich Gaza for wealth.

1633.  Heywood, Eng. Trav., II. Wks. 1874, IV. 31. Of all the Treasures of my Hopes and Loue, You were th’ Exchequer, they were Stor’d in you.

1660.  Boyle, Seraph. Love, xiv. (1700), 91. Love it self (that poor man’s Surety and Exchequer…).

1737.  M. Green, Spleen, 17/2 (R.).

1881.  G. W. Cable, Mme. Delphine, iii. 16. The soul of honor…; frank—the very exchequer of truth!

  6.  transf. The pecuniary possessions, the ‘cash-box.’ ‘purse,’ of a private person, a society, etc.

1618.  Bolton, Florus (1636), 215–6. The poore should live upon their own exchequer?

1675.  Traherne, Chr. Ethicks, xxviii. 455. A Palace and a Coach, an Exchequer full of Gold … are all the grounds of the respect that they pay us.

1685.  South, Serm. (1737), I. x. 384. A command, or call to be liberal … shuts up every private man’s exchequer.

1823.  Lamb, Elia (1867), 32. These were … feeders of his exchequer … to whom he had occasionally been beholden for a loan.

1839.  Thackeray, Fatal Boots, iii. The … impoverished state of my exchequer.

  7.  attrib. and Comb., as exchequer-book, -bullion, -chancellor (rare), -standard. Also exchequer-bill, a bill of credit issued by authority of Parliament (first in 1696), bearing interest at the current rate; hence exchequer-bill-office, the office where exchequer-bills are issued and received; exchequer-bond, a bond (see BOND 10) issued by the Exchequer at a fixed rate of interest and for a fixed period; exchequer-court = Court of Exchequer (see 3); also, ‘the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of York’ (Bailey); exchequer-man, an official of the exchequer; exchequer-note = exchequer-bill; exchequer-tallies (see TALLY), the notched sticks with which the accounts of the Exchequer were formerly kept. Also EXCHEQUER-CHAMBER.

1701.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3694/4. Lost … 3 *Exchequer Bills of 5l. each.

1799.  Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 191/1. Exchequer-bills to the amount of £3,000,000.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 698. In the midst of the general distress and confusion appeared the first Exchequer Bills.

1813.  Examiner, 11 April, 237/1. A crowd of brokers and others beset the *Exchequer-Bill-Office.

1859.  McCulloch, Dict. Commerce, 611. In 1853 *Exchequer Bonds were issued bearing interest at 2³/₄ per cent. for ten years.

1824.  R. Watt, Bibl. Brit., 410/1. The Compilation of the *Exchequer Book, entitled Liber Niger Scaccarii.

1805.  P. L. D. Bonhote (title), Logarithm Tables, adapted to the calculation of *Exchequer Bullion.

1824.  Byron, Juan, XVI. xcviii. All *Exchequer Chancellors endeavour … to dispense with Cocker’s rigours.

1721–1800.  Bailey, *Exchequer Court.

1853.  Marsden, Early Purit., 401. Mr. Vassall, a merchant of London, was brought before the *exchequer court for not paying tonnage and poundage.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 223/1. We shall lacke no *Eschequer man to put vs in shute.

1625.  in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. 207. The Exchequer-man making his profit from the Kings wants.

1795.  Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg. 1796, 70/1. The discount given occasionally on *Exchequer notes was equally discreditable and alarming.

1653.  R. Mason, in Bulwer, Anthropomet., Let. to Author. And so insolently violate the *Exchequer standard of Heaven without a blush.

1690.  Child, Disc. Trade (1694), 17. Such as have disposed of his Majesties *Exchequer Tallies.