or HAMPER, an office in chancery, under the direction of a master, his deputy and clerks, and answering, in some measure, to the fiscus among the Romans.

Clerk of the, sometimes styled warden of the hanaper, an officer who receives all monies due to the king for seals of charters, patents, commissions, and writs, and attends the keeper of the seal daily in term time, and at all times of sealing, and takes into his custody all sealed charters, patents, and the like, which he receives into bags, but ancienly, it is supposed, into hampers, which gave to the office the denomination it still retains. There is also an officer who is comptroller of the hanaper.