scotale

plural scotales · alternative scotal

1. UKhistoricalAn enforced bout of drinking, in which a lord, forester, sheriff, or beadle required all men, on pain of punishment, to purchase or contribute to a gathering for drinking.

   The almost enforced feasting reminds one of the analogous custom of the scotale.

   1910, Paul Vinogradoff ·, Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History - Volume 2, page 32

   2 more examples

   The bailiff or sub-bailiff that had or held the 'scotale' often began by stealing or extorting sheaves of corn from the men of the neighbourhood. From these he brews his beer, and expects them from whose corn it has been brewed to come and drink it, and to pay for the drinking of it.

   1910, Year Books of Edward II, volume 5

   The king's council in 1220 ordered all sheriffs to prevent the observance of scotale and to make proclamation that henceforth no one make either greater or lesser scotale.

   1968, William Alfred Morris, The Medieval English Sheriff to 1300, page 277