Starr or Starra

The old term for contract or obligation among the Jews, being a corruption from the Hebrew word "shetar," a covenant. By an ordinance of Richard I., no starr was allowed to be valid, unless deposited in one of certain repositories established by law, the most considerable of which was in the king's exchequer at Westminster ; and Blackstone conjectures that the room in which these chests were kept was thence called the "starr-chamber."

4 Bl. Comm. 266, 267, note a.