CONSERVATOR, an officer ordained for the se-
curity and preservation of the privileges of some cities
and communities, having a commission to judge of and
determine the differences among them.
In most catholic universities there are two conserva-
tors; the conservator of royal privileges, or those
granted by kings; and the conservator of apostolical
privileges, or those granted by the pope. The first
takes cognizance of personal and mixed causes between
the regents, students, &c. and the latter of spiritual
matters between ecclesiastics.
Anciently there were appointed conservators of treati-
es of peace between princes; which conservators
became judges of the infractions made on a treaty,
and were charged with procuring satisfaction to be
made. These were usually the feudatories of the fe-
veral powers. In lieu of conservators, princes now
have recourse to other indifferent princes to guarantee
their treaties.
CONSERVATOR of Scots Privileges, at Campvere, was
an officer belonging to the royal boroughs of Scotland,
who took care of the mercantile affairs of Scotland,
agreeable to the staple contract between them and the
States-General.
CONSERVATOR of the Peace, in the ancient English
customs, was a person who had an especial charge, by
virtue of his office, to see the king's peace kept. Till
the erection of justices of the peace by King Ed-
ward III. there were several persons who by common
law were interested in keeping the same: some having
that charge as incident to other offices; and others
simply, or of itself, called custodes, or conservators of
the peace. The chamberlain of Chester is still a con-
servator
water servator in that county; and petty constables are, by the common law, conservators, &c. in the first sense, within their own jurisdiction: so are also the coroner and the sheriff within their own county. The king is the principal conservator of the peace within all his dominions: the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, lord high steward, lord marshal, lord high constable, all the justices of the court of king's bench, by their office, and the master of the rolls, by prescription, are general conservators of the peace through the whole kingdom, and may commit breakers of the peace, and bind them in recognisances to keep it.