Proctor

Proctor is derived through Middle English and Old French from the Latin procurator, "one who acts in place of another." Proctors are of three kinds: - (1) University officials whose duty it is to maintain order among the undergraduates and see that the statutes are observed. Nominally, their power extends to Bachelors of Arts also. At night they walk the streets attended by "bull-dogs" who lay hands on the unwary undergraduate abroad without cap and gown. (2) Officers who in Convocation represent either the chapter of a cathedral or the clergy of a diocese. (3) A class of practitioners in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty courts whose functions are now discharged by solicitors.