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Catchpole is a surname and type of tax collector in medieval England. It is a combination of Old English (cace-, catch) and medieval Latin (pullus, a chick) 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 (born 1994), British rugby player
• Henry Catchpole (disambiguation), multiple people
• James Morrison Catchpole, birth name of English singer-songwriter James Morrison
• Jordan Catchpole (born 1999), British Paralympic swimmer
• Judith Catchpole, colonial American maidservant
• Ken Catchpole (1939–2017), 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
• Tristan Catchpole, character in the television series Starhunter

References

1. ^ World Wide Words: Issue 825: 30 March 2013, 'Catchpole'

• Surnames
• English-language surnames