Sc. Also bethral, -el, betheral, -el. [App. a corruption of BEADLE: the ending may be due to form-assoc.]
A church officer in Scotland with duties akin to, but not identical with, those of the English beadle, often combining those of clerk, sexton and bell-ringer.
1815. Scott, Guy M., lv. Put in auld Elspeth, the bedral’s widow—the like o’ them’s used wi’ graves and ghaists, and thae things.
1823. Byron, Juan, X. lxxiii. Black Edward’s helm, and Becket’s bloody stone, Were pointed out as usual by the bedral.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1863), 21. The Dominie was sitting … opposite the auld Betherel.
