stavesman

plural stavesmen

1. An official bearing a stave or wand.

   The area of the square was crowded with stavesmen and spectators: the candidates rode as usual.

   1786 September 20, James Edward Smith, edited by [Pleasance] Smith, Memoir and Correspondence of the Late Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. […], volume I, London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […], published 1832, page 172

   3 more examples

   They were escorted to the Swan Inn, by twenty four stavesmen, headed by Bishop, the London police officer, who had been engaged to assist at the Election in case of need.

   [1831], R[ichard] M. Muggeridge, A History of the Late Contest for the Representation of the Borough of Bedford, […], London: […] J[ohn] Hatchard & Son, […]; C. B. Merry, […], page 45

   Then came the marshal of the Merchant Tailors’ Company, bearing the shield of the arms of England, succeeded by four stavesmen of the company, with their badges of office.

   1862, William Harrison Ainsworth, “The Lord Mayor of London: or, City Life in the Last Century”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume LI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], chapter VII (Of the Lord Mayor’s Procession to Blackfriars; and of the Pageants Exhibited by the City Companies), page 153

   The criminal was conveyed in a cart to Tyburn, the parson chanting prayer and hymn on the route, and in passing through the quarter of St. Giles, a bowl of ale was always offered to the condemned to drink, the procession of Sheriffs, Stavesmen, and Constables, halting on the way for the purpose.

   1878, Daniel Joseph Kirwan, Palace and Hovel: or, Phases of London Life. […], Hartford, Conn.; Chicago, Ill.: Columbian Book Company, page 157