An alternative spelling or variant of catchpole; a medieval law enforcer or debt collector, often corrupt.
Variant spelling of 'catchpole,' used in some historical documents. The '-poll' form may derive from Old French 'pol' (head) or pole (staff), but the exact variant origin is unclear.
Historical documents inconsistently spelled words, so 'catchpoll' and 'catchpole' appear interchangeably in medieval records. These spelling variations actually help historians date documents, since spelling standardization happened gradually.
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