Catchpole
Catchpole is a surname and type of tax collector in medieval England. It is a combination of Old English and medieval Latin 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.
Notable bearers
- Brent Catchpole, New Zealand politician
- Hugh Catchpole, academician and administrator
- George Catchpole, British rugby player
- Henry Catchpole (disambiguation), multiple people
- James Morrison Catchpole, birth name of English singer-songwriter James Morrison
- Jordan Catchpole, British Paralympic swimmer
- Judith Catchpole, colonial American maidservant
- Ken Catchpole, Australian rugby player
- Kylie Catchpole, Australian solar energy researcher
- Margaret Catchpole, British deportee to Australia
In fiction
- Eric Catchpole, character in the British series ''Lovejoy''