CUSTOS

Lat. A custodian, guard, keeper, or warden; a magistrate. Custos brevium. The keeper of the writs. A principal clerk belonging to the courts of queen’s bench and common pleas, whose office it was to keep the writs returnable into those courts. The office was abolished by 1 Wm. IV. c 5. Custos ferarum. A gamekeeper. Townsh. PI. 265. Castes horrci regit Protector of the royal granary. 2 Bl. Comm. 394. -Custos maris. In old English law. Warden of the sea. The title of a high naval officer among the Saxons and after the Conquest, corresponding with admiral. Custos morum. The guardian of morals. The court of queen’s bench has been so styled. 4 Steph. Comm. 377. Custos plaoitorum coronaa. In old English law. Keeper of the pleas of the crown. Bract fol. 146. Cowell supposes this office to have been the same with the custos rotulorum. But it seems rather to have been another name for “coroner.” Crabb. Eng. Law, 150; Bract, fol. 1366. Custos rotulorum. Keeper of the rolls. An officer in England who has the custody of the rolls or records of the sessions of the peace, and also of the commission of the peace itself. He is always a justice of the quorum in the county where appointed and Is the principal civil officer in the county. 1 Bl. Comm. 349; 4 Bl. Comm. 272. Custos piritualium. In English ecclesiastical law. Keeper of the spiritualities. He who exercises the spiritual jurisdiction of a diocese during the vacancy of the see. Cowell. Custos temporalium. In English ecclesiastical law. .The person to whom a vacant see or abbey was given y the king, as supreme lord. His office was, as steward of the goods ana profits, to give an account to the escheator, who did the like to the exchequer. Custos terras. In old English law. Guardian, warden, or keeper of the land. Custos statum haeredis in custodia existentis meliorem non deteriorem facere potest. 7 Coke, 7. A guardian can make the estate of an existing heir under his guardianship better, not worse.