Chancellor

Chancellor, chan′sel-or, n. (Shak.) secretary: the president of a court of chancery or other court: the official who keeps the registers of an order of knighthood: the titular head of a university: (Scot.) the foreman of a jury.—ns. Chan′cellorship; Chan′cellory.—Chancellor of a cathedral, an officer who formerly had charge of the chapter library, custody of the common seal, superintendence of the choir practices, and headship of the cathedral schools; Chancellor of a diocese, an ecclesiastical judge uniting the functions of vicar-general and official principal, appointed to assist the bishop in questions of ecclesiastical law, and hold his courts for him; Chancellor of the Exchequer, the chief minister of finance in the British government; Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor, the presiding judge of the Court of Chancery, the keeper of the great seal, and the first lay person of the state after the blood-royal. [Fr. chancelier—Low L. cancellarius, orig. an officer that had charge of records, and stood near the cancelli (L.), the crossbars that surrounded the judgment-seat.]