Bow Street runner

British  

/ bəʊ /

noun

1. (in Britain from 1749 to 1829) an officer at Bow Street magistrates' court, London, whose duty was to pursue and arrest criminals

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Example Sentences

The Bow Street runner had not been dead as I had thought.

From Romance by Conrad, Joseph

Could he find no other he would apply for employment as a Bow Street runner, serve for a year to find out their methods, and acquaint himself with the places where criminals were harbored.

From Colonel Thorndyke's Secret by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

In 1822 a Bow Street runner named Denovan, while visiting Leith, chanced to fall into conversation with a sailor lately returned from captivity among the French.

From Legal Lore Curiosities of Law and Lawyers by Various

No chance of giving any one the slip in that direction; and no sign, either, of the Bow Street runner.

From A Rogue's Life by Collins, Wilkie

When I was nearly in front of the magistrate's house, a post-chaise stopped before it, and a fellow got out whom I took to be a Bow Street runner.

From Philip Winwood A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence; Embracing Events that Occurred between and during the Years 1763 and 1786, in New York and London: written by His Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant in the Loyalist Forces. by Stephens, Robert Neilson