sb. Forms: 1 bydel, 2–4 budel (ü), bedele, 3 bidell, 4 bidel, (Sc. badal), 5 bydelle, beddell, (betille), 6 beedle, bedyl(l, 6–7 bedelle, bedle, 9 beadel, (Sc. beddal); 2–9 bedel, 4–9 bedell, 7– beadle. [Originally OE. bydel (= MDu. *bödel, Du. beul, OHG. butil, MHG. bütel, Ger. büttel):—OTeut. *budilo-z, derivative of biud-an, in OE. béodan, OHG. biotan to offer, present, deliver, announce, command. Some form of the Teutonic was adopted in Romanic: cf. It. bidello, Pr., Sp., OF. bedel, F. bédeau, med.L. bidellus, bedellus; and in ME. the Fr. form bedel gradually superseded the native bydel. The ordinary modern spelling is beadle, but the archaic forms beadel, bedel, bedell, are in use in specific senses.]
† 1. One who makes a proclamation (on behalf of another); a herald. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Ex. xxxii. 5. Aaron … het bydelas beodan and þus cweþan.
c. 1200. Ormin, 632. Cristess bidell Sannt Johan.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11006. Sent him forwit his bedele, For-þi sent iesus iohn forwith.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 15. Whenne the bedell hadde y-makid this proclamacion.
1535. Coverdale, Dan. iii. 4. The bedell cried out with all his might.
1644. Bulwer, Chirol., 124. Proclaimed liberty by the Beadle to many of the parts of Greece.
† b. The crier or usher of a law-court; a town-crier. Obs.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 8. If a bedel, or criare, schewe þe fre graunt of his lord.
c. 1432–50. trans. Higden (1865), I. 247. A bydelle, or the crier of the cite ascendede in to a towre … and seyde so mony tymes, ‘Calo, calo.’
1691. Blount, Law Dict., Bedel, a Crier or Messenger of a court.
2. One who delivers the message or executes the mandates of an authority: † a. generally. Obs.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 95. Þes budeles word. Ibid., 117. Þe biscop … godes budel is.
c. 1220. Leg. St. Kath., 1928. A burhreue … þæt wes þe deoules budel.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 100. Þei be trewe bedelis to telle it.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 364. Dethe is the messynger of the hie Emperour … and … the betille of hym that made hevyn and Erth.
c. 1450. Lydg., St. Albon (1534), G j b. As a bedyll to brynge you tydyng.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge (1848), 39. This wycked Werebode, the bedyll of Belyall.
b. spec. A messenger of justice, a warrant officer; an under-bailiff; a tipstaff. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xii. 58. Þe-læs he þé sylle þam … bydele, and se bydel þe sende on cwertern.
a. 1300. Havelok, 266. Schireues he sette, bedels, and greyues … To yemen wilde wodes and pathes Fro wicke men.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 60. Budels and bailifs · and brokours of chaffare.
c. 1500. God Speed Plough, 37. Bayllys and bedelles … to doo vs sorowe Inough.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 38. Burgesses Serjeants and Beadles have their Courts within every their particular limits.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 234 b. The oath of a Bedell of a Mannor is, that he shall duly and truly execute all such Attachements and other Proces as shall be directed to him from the Lord or Steward of his Court.
† c. An under-officer of the Forest Courts. Obs.
1598. Manwood, Lawes Forest, xxi. § 4 (1615), 206. A Bedle is an officer or seruant of the Forest that doth make all manner of garnishments of the Courts of the Forest, and also all manner of Proclamations as well within the Courts of the Forest as without.
1647. Haward, Crown Rev., 48. Bedle of the Forrest: Fee, £9 2s. 6d.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 819. No Forester or Bedell … shall make any Ale-shots, or Collect Sheafs of Corn.
3. An apparitor or precursor who walks officially in front of dignitaries, a mace-bearer; a. spec. in the English universities (at present conventionally spelt bedel, -ell,) the name of certain officials, formerly of two ranks distinguished as esquire bedels and yeomen bedels, having various functions as executive officers of the University. Their duties are now chiefly processional: at Oxford there are four, the junior- or sub-bedel being the official attendant of the Vice-chancellor, before whom he bears a silver staff or mace; at Cambridge there are two, called esquire-bedells, both of whom officially walk in front of the Vice-chancellor with maces.
a. 1300. Cursor M. (Cott.), 12914. Als bedel gais be-for iustis.
1562. Petition, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. I. xxx. 342. The beadles and other officers, belonging to either of the Universities.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 11461. One of the bedels named maister Adams, came weeping to him, & praied him to shift for himselfe.
1641. Laud, Hist. Chanc. Oxf., 132 (T.). If the university would bring in some bachelors of Art to be yeomen-bedels … they which thrived well and did good service, might after be preferred to be esquire-bedels.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Odes (1765), 206. When college-students take degrees, And pay the beadle’s endless fees.
1797. Cambr. Univ. Cal., 143. Esquire Bedells. The Bedells are officers for life, they must be men of learning, and have taken the degree of A.M.
1826–7. Act 7 & 8 Geo. IV., lxxv. in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm., 144. The Proctors and Bedels for the time being.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 280. The registrar and bedells waited on Francis.
b. The apparitor of a trades guild or company.
1389. Eng. Gilds (1870), 35. He [the Alderman] ssal sende forthe þe bedel to alle þe breþeren and þe systeren. Ibid. (1514), 144. To be paid yerely … to the beddell of the seid Gilde, Tuppens.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., I. 541. He received aid from his Company, and was ultimately appointed their beadle.
4. An inferior parish officer appointed by the vestry to keep order in church, punish petty offenders, and act as the servitor or messenger of the parish generally; a parish constable.
1594. 1st Pt. Contention (1843), 23. Have you not Beadles in your town?
c. 1600[?]. Distracted Emp., V. iii. in Old Pl. (1884), III. 248. Let the Bedle … with … his owne whypp medle, And lashe theym soundlye.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 509, ¶ 2. The unlucky boys with toys and balls were whipped away by a beadle.
1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, v. (1870), 128. If Bloomfield is too much of the farmer’s boy, Crabbe is too much of the parish beadle.
1845. Stephen, Laws Eng., II. 701. A beadle … whose business is to attend the vestry, to give notice of its meetings to the parishioners, and execute its orders &c.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 55. A printed copy of the notice calling each Vestry, shall be left by the Beadel at every house in the Parish.
b. In Scotland the duties of the beadle or ‘church-officer’ are more especially connected with attending upon the clergyman; he may be also sexton.
c. 1860. Ramsay, Remin., i. 6. The beddal and parish oracle.
1884. Rogers, Soc. Life Scot., I. v. 163. At Allsa the beadle’s fee for the funeral bell was thirteen shillings and fourpence.
5. fig. (referring to the punitive functions of the beadle.) Obs.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 189. Her iniurie the Beadle to her sinne.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, II. 33. Fear, the Beadle of the law, terrified them from the beginning.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, I. ix. 84. He is the beadle to chastise their follies.
6. Comb., as beadle-office; beadle-watched adj.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., III. xxxviii. A narrow, beadle-watched portal.
1877. E. Thomas, Lange’s Materialism (1880), II. 245. The magnificent abstraction … performed the meanest beadle-offices long enough to excite a universal distrust of philosophy.
