Knight-MARSHAL, or MARSHAL of the King's House, an English officer, whose business, according to Fleta, is to execute the commands and decrees of the lord steward, and to have the custody of prisoners committed by the court of verge. Under him are six marshal's men, who are properly the king's bailiffs, and arrest in the verge of the court, when a warrant is backed by the board of green-cloth. The court where causes of this kind, between man and man, are tried, is called the Marshalsea, and is under the knight-marshall. See MARSHALSEA.
This is also the name of the prison in Southwark; the reason of which may probably be, that the marshal of the king's house was wont to sit there in judgment, or keep his prison.