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(law) A duty in money formerly paid by the sheriff on his account in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands.
1548, King Edward VI, Act 2:
the same tayles soe hereafter there to be levyed and striken, shalbe delyvered unto everye of the same Sheriffes[…]without prest or other chardge to be sett upon them for the same.
1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: Robert Triphook,, and William Sancho,, 1810, →OCLC:
c.1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 71–74:
The fauconer then was prest, Came runnynge with a dow, And cryed, ‘Stow, stow, stow!’ But she wold not bow.