Schout

In Dutch-speaking areas, a schout was a local official appointed to carry out administrative, law enforcement and prosecutorial tasks.

The phrase schout en schepenen appears in many legal documents from before the Napoleonic period, including the civil registration of marriages.

Depending on the context and in what capacity they were acting, this phrase could mean something like the "mayor and aldermen" (i.e. the town council) or it could mean "the sheriff and magistrates".

He or his men checked the drinking houses, carried out conscription orders, made sure taxes were paid and enforced the law.

[7] The word schout, depending on its context, can be translated variously into English, usually as sheriff, bailiff, or reeve, but strictly in their respective medieval senses.

The Dutch word schout comes from Middle Dutch scouthete, in turn from Old Low Franconian skolthēti, and is cognate with Old English scyldhǣta, sculthēta "reeve, (medieval) bailiff", German Schultheiß, (Swiss) Schulze "bailie (magistrate)", from PGmc *skuldi-haitijō "debt-orderer".

The Dutch equivalent of the naval rank of Rear Admiral is called Schout-Bij-Nacht (literally, schout at night).