Batteler
Battel
Term used at the University of Oxford for the bills paid by students for food and accommodation
Battel, or battels,[1] sometimes spelled batells (Magdalen),[2] or batels (Brasenose)[3] is a term used in the University of Oxford to refer to food ordered by members of the college as distinct from the usual commons. Hence, it also referred to college accounts for board and provisions supplied from kitchen and buttery and, generally, the whole of a person's college accounts.[4] Though the distinction from commons is no longer relevant, the term persists as the name for members' termly bills at many colleges at the Universities of Oxford and Durham.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2014) |
Batteler (later, a resident in a college) was originally a rank of students between commoners and servitors who, as the name implies, were not supplied with "commons", but only such provisions as they ordered for themselves.[4]