Daily AncestorBailiff
A bailiff was a court or estate officer: in America usually the officer who kept order in court and served papers; in England also a manager of an estate.
The Normans used bailiff for the officer who carried out a court's decisions, serving summonses and executing warrants. On a medieval manor the bailiff was the lord's steward, collecting rents and supervising tenants.
In the United States the word settled on law officers charged with courtroom security and order. So a bailiff in an English record may be an estate manager, while in an American county record he is almost always a court officer.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1940 census
Peter Lowe, 52, Bailiff, County Court
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Daily Ancestor. "Bailiff." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/bailiff. Last checked 2026-10-10.