sb. Chiefly Sc. Forms: 4 tolboþe, 4–6 tolbothe, tolbuth, 5 tolboythe, tolle buthe, tolbuthe, (towboth, -buthe), 5–7 tolbuith, 6 tolboth, -boith, -buyth, tollboothe, -bouthe, (towbuyth, 7 toole-, towle-, tolebooth), 6– tolbooth, 7– tollbooth. [f. TOLL sb.1 + BOOTH, lit. the booth, stall, or shed of the tax-collector. Cf. Ger. zollbude, Da. toldbod, custom-house.]
† 1. A booth, stall, or office at which tolls, duties, or customs are collected; a custom-house.
[1314–5. Rolls of Parlt., I. 331/1. Mandetur … Ballivis de Tolbotha de Lenne.]
13[?]. Propr. Sanct. (Vernon MS.) in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXXI. 309/4. Matheu cald was his name, In a Tol-boþe sat þe same.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, x. (Mathou), 8. Quhare in þe tolbuth set lewy.
1381. Rolls of Parlt., III. 108/1. Alerent jeske a Tolbothe du dite ville [Canterbury].
1382. Wyclif, Matt. ix. 9. He seiȝ a man sittynge in a tolbothe, Matheu by name.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 804/8. Hoc toloneum, a tolbothe.
1483. Cath. Angl., 390/1. A Tolle buthe.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1186/1. The tolboth in the market of Durham all of stone.
1587. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), III. 116. Excepte onelie of the tollboothe the toll and stallages of Manchester.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, N. T., 14. Sitting in the Tolebooth of the Publicans to gather up the rents.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germ., II. 133. There is here a great toll-booth, or custom-house, where toll is paid for … black cattle that pass from Jutland into Germany.
2. A town hall or guildhall.
(Often (esp. in Scotland) comprehending senses 1 and 3.)
1440. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1814), II. 32/2. The Consale Generale haldyn at Strivilyn in the tolbuthe of that ilk.
1467. Dunfermline Regr. (Bann. Cl.), 358. Þis inquisicion made at Berwik vpoun twede in þe tolbuth of þe samyn.
1593. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 817/2. Ad edificandum pretorium, carcerem domumque ponderum et telonium (lie tolbuith, prissoun, weyhous and customehous) … ad publicos usus dicti burgi.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., X. (S.T.S.), II. 400. Publiklie be heraldis … scho [the Queen] commandis, that Johne Knox, Wilok, Douglas, and Paul Meffen, compeiring in the Tolbuith of Striuiling in Judgment to mak ansuer.
1665. J. Buck, in Peacock, Stat. Cambridge (1841), App. B. 54. Upon Michaelmass day the Vice Chancellor with some of the Heads and Doctors … goe to the Toll Booth in their Scarlet Gowns, there to give the Maior his oath.
1820. Lingard, Hist. Eng., IV. ii. 24. Margaret … offered to conduct her son (he was only in his twelfth year) to the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and to announce by proclamation that he had assumed the government.
1828. Craven Gloss., Toll-booth.… In this district it signifies a Town Hall, where the Court Baron is held, and the rents and amercements due to the Lord are paid.
1900. J. Kirkwood, United Presbyterians Ayr., iii. 29. They had to perform the ceremony in the Tolbooth of Irvine.
3. A town prison, a jail.
(Formerly usually consisting of cells under the town hall.)
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VII. 202. A bauk was knyt all full of rapys keyne; Sic a towboth sen syn was neuir seyne.
c. 1520. Nisbet, N. T. in Scots, Acts xxiii. 35. He comandit him to be kepit in the tolbuth of Herode.
1535. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), I. 432. The said universitie [Cambridge] hath hertefor had … the use of the kings prisoune there called the Tolbothe.
1581. N. Burne, Disput., in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 109. Being impresoned first in the Castel of Sanctandrois, and nixt in the tolbuith of Edinburgh.
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb., vii. § 25. The Maior refused to give them the keys of the Toll-booth, or Town-prison.
1661. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 2), Tolbuyth, the name of the chief Prison at Edenburgh.
1738. (title) Captain Porteous’s Ghost, giving an Account how he was dragged from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, by the outrageous mob, and hung by the neck like a Dog.
1752. J. Louthian, Form of Process (ed. 2), 67. I being incarcerate within the said Tolbooth, by Warrant of the Lord Justice-Clerk, for the Crime of Murder alledged committed by me.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., Note C. Since the year 1640 … the Tolbooth was occupied as a prison only.
1855. [Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy (1859), 6. I am not without some pleasing reminiscences of the guide toun of Hawick, having been boarded and lodged in the tolbooth there for the space of seven days.
4. attrib.
1611. Acc. Bk. W. Wray, in Antiquary, XXXII. 214. The crosse of stone standing in the toolebooth garth.
c. 1737. in Scott, Hrt. Midl., Note D. One Stoddart,… was charged of haveing boasted publickly, in a smith’s shop at Leith, that he had assisted in breaking open the Tolbooth door. Ibid. (1818), iii[i]. ‘I would claw down the tolbooth door wi’ my nails,’ said Miss Grizel, ‘but I wad be at him [Porteous].’
1847. Mrs. S. Menteath, Lays Kirk & Covt., 65. A gleam is waking—more faintly now—Her Tolbooth prison-hold.
Hence † Tolbooth v. (obs. nonce-wd.), to imprison in a tolbooth.
a. 1635. Corbett, Poems (1648), 35 (Jas. I’s Visit to Cambridge). And well bestow’d he thought his hen, That they might Tolebooth Oxford men.
