subs. phr. (old).—An ecclesiastical officer. [From the livery.]
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, iv. 2 [DODSLEY, Old Plays [REED], vi. 99]. Husband, lay hold on yonder TAWNY-COAT.
1608. HARINGTON, Nugæ Antiquæ, Of Carlyle [PARK, ed., ii. 22]. It happened one day, bishop Elmer [? Aylmer] of London, meeting this Bishop [Whitgift, then bishop of Worcester] with such an orderly troope of TAWNY COATS, demaunded of him, ‘How he could keepe so many men?’ he answeared, ‘It was by reason, he kept so few women.’
1592. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry VI., iii. 1. 174. Down with the TAWNY-COATS!
