Summoners
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
or summonitores. Were petty officers to cite and warn men to appear, properly the apparitors, who warned in delinquents at a certain time and place, to answer any charge or complaint exhibited against them; and, in citations from a superior court, they were to be equals of the party cited; at least, the barons were to be summoned by none under the degree of knights. (Paroch. Antiq. 177.) Summonitores scaccarii were officers who assisted in collecting the king's revenues, by citing the defaulters therein, into the court of exchequer.
Jacob.