† couple-beggarn.
Obsolete.
A disreputable priest who made it his business to ‘couple’ beggars or perform irregular marriages.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > people connected with wedding > [noun] > one who performs marriage ceremony > types of
couple-beggar1702
Fleet parson1732
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > priest > kinds of priest > [noun] > ignorant > performing irregular marriages
buckle-beggarc1700
knit-beggar1700
couple-beggar1702
1702 Wilmslow Parish Reg. in Earwaker E. Cheshire I. 99 Were lately married by a couple begger.
1725 J. Swift Riddle in Poems No Couple-Beggar in the Land E'er join'd such Numbers Hand in Hand.
1744 Faulkener's Jrnl. 6–9 Oct. in W. E. H. Lecky Eng. in 18th C. (1878) II. 369 This last term a notorious couple beggar..was excommunicated..by the Vicar-General of this diocese, on account of his persisting in this scandalous trade, which he had taken up, to the undoing of many good families.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
<
n.1702