[f. BENCH sb. + -ER1.]
1. One who sits on a bench (or thwart); one who frequents the benches of a tavern.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), D d viij. If the pyllers bee of syluer, and benches of golde, and though the benchers be kynges.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., IV. i. O, the benchers phrase: pauca verba.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 286. The benchers joke with the women passing by.
1860. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xiii. Old companions, θρανίται, benchers (of the gallant eight-oar).
2. One who officially sits on a bench; a magistrate, judge, assessor, senator, member of the Sanhedrim, alderman, etc. arch.
1571. Damon & P., in Hazl., Dodsl., IV. 17. Of parasites and sycophants you are a grave bencher.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 91. A necessary Bencher in the Capitoll.
1612. Bp. Hall, Contempl. N. T., IV. xxx. The grave benchers of Ierusalem … Rabbies of Israel.
a. 1693. Ashmole, Antiq. Berks (1723), III. 58. Ten of them Aldermen or chief Benchers.
3. spec. One of the senior members of the Inns of Court, who form for each Inn a self-elective body, managing its affairs, and possessing the privilege of ‘calling to the bar.’
1582. Act 5 Eliz., i. § 5. As well Utter-Barresters as Benchers.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 311. He was made successively Barrester, utter Barrester, Bencher and Reader.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 21, ¶ 4. Benchers of the several Inns of Court, who seem to be Dignitaries of the Law.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 774. The benchers of the Inner Temple could bear the scandal … no longer.
