Catchpole

Catchpole is a surname and type of tax collector in medieval England. It is a combination of Old English (cace-, catch) and medieval Latin (pullus, a chick) and derives from the idea that people who owed tax were as difficult to catch as farmyard hens. The Catchpole name is from Dorset, southern England.

At that time, tax-gathering was contracted out in a system called tax farming. The catchpole paid a lump sum for authority to collect taxes from a given area or population, and was then able to keep whatever he could, using almost any method. Later, his duties were those of a legal official, working for the bailiff. He was mainly responsible for collecting debts, using methods hardly more restrained than those of his tax gathering forebears.