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provost-marshal
Also 6 propheest-, 6, 9 -martial.
[f. provost n. 6, 7 + marshal n., commonly held to be an irregular representation of OF. prevost des mareschaus (de France), ‘provost of the marshals (of France)’, 15th c. in Littré: see Note below.]
An officer (= provost 6, prevost 2) attached to a military or naval force, whose duties and powers have varied at different times and in different countries. Now, in the army: An officer appointed to a force in camp or on active service, as the head of the police, having duties which include the preservation of order, the prevention of pillage, the custody of prisoners charged with offences till trial, the carrying into effect of the punishments awarded, etc. In the navy, the ‘Master-at-Arms’ of the ship in which a court-martial is to be held (being the Chief Petty Officer in charge of the ship's police) is appointed by warrant Provost-marshal for the occasion.
1535St. Papers Hen. VIII, II. 237 They wer..arrayned before the propheest marshall and capitannes, and ther, upon ther awne confessions, adjudged to die. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 12 b, The lorde Darcie..sent forth his Prouost Marshal, which scarcelie with peyne refrayned the yomen archers. 1571Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 102 Tak the personis, and use thame as presoners, and deliver thame to the Provest Marcheall. 1591Garrard's Art Warre 157 They shall by the Provost Martiall be punished. 1600Holland Livy xxix. xxix. 731 Amongst whom was Hanno also the Provost Marshall [præfectus], a noble young gentleman. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 342/1 The Boatswain serves for a Provost-Marshal. 1706Phillips, Provost-Marshal,..also an Officer in the Royal Navy, who has charge of the Prisoners taken at Sea. 1809Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1835) IV. 455 The appointment of Assistant Provost Marshals, I am sorry to say, is but too necessary. 1833Marryat P. Simple lxi, I was put under the custody of the provost-martial. 1844Regul. & Ord. Army 275 The Officer appointed to the situation of Provost-Marshal has the rank of Captain in the Army: the appointment is one of great responsibility, and requires the utmost vigilance and activity. 1897Gen. H. Porter in Cent. Mag. June 211 Provost-marshal's guards seized all available citizens..and impressed them into the service. 1908Admiralty Memo. on Court-Martial Procedure 35 The Convening Authority..shall, by warrant..appoint a provost-marshal to take the accused into his custody and safely keep him until he shall have been delivered in due course of law.
b. Used as equivalent of obs. F. prevost des mareschaux and of other names of semi-military officers of public order.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn prevost de mareschaulx, a prouoste Marshall, that hath in charge to hang vp theues. c1620Fletcher & Mass. Lit. Fr. Lawyer v. iii, Provost. I have been provost-marshal twenty years, And have truss'd up a thousand of these rascals. 1823Scott Quentin D. vi, They bore the palm [as the object of fear and execration] over every hangman in France, unless it were their master, Tristan l'Hermite, the renowned Provost-Marshal, or his master, Louis XI. Ibid. passim. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 261 A provost-martial of the name of Aichili traversed Swabia and Franconia..; it is calculated that within a small district, he hung forty evangelical preachers on trees by the roadside.
c. The chief police official of some of the states or colonies in the West Indies, etc.
1737J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. 204 Governors and Officers in the West Indies..Peter Forbes Esq.; Provost Marshall. Ibid. 205 Bermuda..George Tucker, Esq.; Secretary and Provost-Marshal. [Given also as the title of an official in Barbadoes, Leeward Islands, South Carolina.] 1908Whitaker's Alm. 539 The Bahamas..Provost-Marshal and Commandant of Constabulary. Ibid. 542 Barbados..Provost-Marshal.
[Note. The functions of the prevost des mareschaus de France in the 15th c. appear to have been those of a military provost-marshal, although they were subsequently extended and changed; thus Cotgrave 1611 explains Prevost des Mareschaux as ‘A Prouost Marshall (who is often both Informer, Judge, and Executioner) punishes disorderlie Souldiors, Coyners, Free-booters, high-way robbers, lazie rogues, or vagabonds, and such as weare forbidden weapons’; Littré has ‘prévôt des maréchaux, an officer appointed to watch over the safety of the highways within the limits of a généralité, called also prévôt de la maréchaussée [i.e. provost of the marshalcy]’; in which the military functions have disappeared. For these Littré has prévôt de l'armée, prévôt du régiment, and in the navy, prévôt général de la marine, and prévôt marinier. The 15th c. F. prevost des mareschaus might have been rendered ‘marshals' provost’, but it is not easy to see how it became provost-marshal, unless perhaps under the influence of court-martial, law martial, and the 16th c. confusion of marshal and martial, whereby we find also law marshal and provost martial, showing that the latter was sometimes at least taken to be ‘war provost’.] |