Catchpole

Catchpole is a rare surname derived from a law enforcement implement found in medieval England. The 'catchpole' usually consisted of an eight foot wooden pole with some sort of noose or barbed fork on one end. Law enforcement officers (usually the Sheriff) would place the noose around the neck of the criminal and use it to lead them around and so forth. Catchpoles are still used today, mostly by animal control officials to ensnare uncontrolled wild animals.

A second source of the name, also dating from medieval England, mostly in Norfolk and Dorset, comes from the local tax collectors. It was often the case that smallholders were unable to pay cash for their local land-owners tax and hence collectors were sent round to take goods in lieu. When the tradition that one's surname was one's profession took hold and passed through the generations, the name became contracted to Catchpole.

Catchpole was a Merriam-Webster word of the day. They had this to say:

Imagine chasing a chicken around the barnyard. Catching it would be no mean feat. And chasing down someone who owes you money is pretty challenging too. It's no surprise then that these two taxing tasks come together in "catchpole," which derives from a word that literally means "chicken chaser"—Anglo-French "cachepole." Before it referred to the debt police, "catchpole" was used more generally for any tax collector. That's the sense demonstrated in a 12th-century homily about the apostle Matthew: "Matheus thet wes cachepol thene he iwende to god-spellere" ("Matthew who was a catchpole until he turned into a writer of the Gospel").