tipstaves

English town “policemen” used “tipstaves,” basically quarterstaffs with a sharp metal point on each end, and I once knew a girl whose last name was Catchpole (her ancestors were English constables – you can figure out the name).

When What We Think We Know, Is Actually Wrong at SF Novelists 2009

If you want to see pips, crowns and tipstaves over the Christmas period may I suggest a trip to a good Premiership game. on January 2, 2007 at 8: 45 pm | Reply Zulu Warrior

Far Too Many Robots « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2007

"If I know anything, it'll be a two-thousand-dollar werdick," mumbled one of the tipstaves.

Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 Various

It would have been fun to have seen his surprise the next morning when he read in the paper that he had been bowing to jail-birds, and then I would like to have cheated the tipstaves out of just one more friendly good by.

The Lion and the Unicorn 1899

There was nothing between us and freedom now but our brace of tipstaves, the train crew, the public in and out of the train, the train itself moving at a fifty mile an hour pace, the law, and our own common sense.

The Subterranean Brotherhood Julian Hawthorne 1890

It would have been fun to have seen his surprise the next morning when he read in the paper that he had been bowing to jail-birds, and then I would like to have cheated the tipstaves out of just one more friendly good-by.

Lion and the Unicorn Richard Harding Davis 1890

It would have been fun to have seen his surprise the next morning when he read in the paper that he had been bowing to jail-birds, and then I would like to have cheated the tipstaves out of just one more friendly good-by.

The Exiles and Other Stories Richard Harding Davis 1890

They carried black staves six feet long, tipped with brass, and hence were called tipstaves.

Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

There were no gowns, no cocked-hats, no swords, no tipstaves, only one bald-headed man, and but about twenty constables.

The Liberian Exodus. An Account of Voyage of the First Emigrants in the Bark "Azor," and Their Reception at Monrovia, with a Description of Liberia--Its Customs and Civilization, Romances and Prospects. Alfred Brockenbrough Williams 1878

Two tipstaves thereupon rudely seized him by the arms.

The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc. Vol. I Thomas Barnes Cochrane Dundonald 1873