Also 4–6 assisour, 7 assyser, 8 asyser. Aphet. 4 sysour: see SIZAR. [a. AF. assisour, n. of agent f. assiser to ASSIZE.]
1. Eng. Hist. One of those who constituted the assize or inquest, whence the modern jury originated; a sworn recognitor.
c. 1330. Pol. Songs (1839), 344. Assisours that comen to shire and to hundred, Damneth men for silver.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 59. Sysours and somners · shereuyes and here clerkes.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 864. The twelve sisours that weren of the queste, They schul ben hanged this day, so have I reste.
1617. Daniel, Hist. Eng., 169. Murtherers, fighters, false assisors, and other such malefactors.
2. Scotch Law. A juryman. Obs. exc. Hist.
1436. Act 13 James I., i. § 2. Al Jugis sal ger þe assisoures swere … þat þai nothir haf tane na sal tak mede.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 13. All the assisours sall sweare, that … they sall nocht laine nor conceale the trueth.
1709. Royal Procl. (Scotl.), in Lond. Gaz., No. 4522/2. We require … our Sheriffs, that they cause sufficient … Men to Compear before our … Judges … for being Asysers and Witnesses.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., V. liv. 45. John Kirkcaldy, a cousin of Grange, had gone to Dunfermline … to act as an assizer or juryman.
3. An officer who had charge of the Assize of Weights and Measures, or who fixed the Assize of Bread and Ale, or of other articles of consumption.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Assiser … of weights and measures, is an officer who has the care and oversight of those matters.
