Baston
Origin
Old French baston
Full definition of baston
Noun
baston
(plural bastons)- (heraldry) Obsolete form of baton
- (obsolete) A staff or cudgel.
- HollandTo fight with blunt bastons.
- (obsolete) An officer bearing a painted staff, who formerly was in attendance upon the king's court to take into custody persons committed by the court.
- 1377, Statute of the Realm 1, Richard II, cap. 12Item, whereas divers people, at the suit of the party commanded to the prison of the Fleet, by judgment given in courts of our Lord the King, be oftentimes suffered to go at large by the warden of the prison, sometime by mainprise or by bail, and sometimes without any mainprise with a baston of the Fleet, and to go from thence into the country about their merchandises and other their business, and be there long out of prison nights and days, without their assent at whose suit they be judged, and without their gree thereof made, whereby a man cannot come to his right and recovery against such prisoners, to the great mischief and undoing of many people; It is ordained and assented, That from henceforth no warden of the Fleet shall suffer any prisoner there being by judgment at the suit of the party, to go out of prison by mainprise, bail, nor by baston, without making gree to the said parties of that whereof they were judged, unless it be by writ or other commandment of the King, upon pain to lose his office, and the keeping of the said prison.
- 1562, Statute of the Realm 5, Elizabeth I, cap. 23When any person or persons shall yield his or their body or bodies to the hands of the sheriff or other officer, upon any of the said writs of capias, that then the same party or parties that shall so yield themselves, shall remain in prison and custody of the said sheriff or other officer, without bail, baston or mainprize, in such like manner and form, to all intents and purposes, as he or they should or ought to have done, if he or they had been apprehended and taken upon the said writ of excommunicato capiendo.
- 1607, John Cowell, The Interpreter of Words and TermsBaston, is a French Word signifying a Staff or Club, and by the Statures of our Realm, denotes one of the Wardens of the Fleet
' s Servants or Officers, that attendeth the King's Court with a painted Staff, for the taking into Custody such as are committed by the Court. - 1876, Herbert Mozley and George Whiteley, A Concise Dictionary of LawBaston (Bâton). A French word signifying a staff or club. In the statutes it sometimes denotes an officer in attendance upon the king's court with a painted staff, for the taking into custody persons committed by the court.