Cheaters
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
or ESCHEATORS, were officers appointed to look after the king’s escheats, a duty which gave them great opportunities of fraud and oppression, and in con- Bequence many complaints were made of their misconduct. Hence it seems that a cheater came to signify a fraudulent person, and thence the verb to cheat was derived, Wharton.