commissary

Representative of another. An ecclesiastical commissary is the deputy of a bishop, by whom the jurisdiction of the latter is exercised in distant parts of the diocese. A military commissary is an officer whose duty it is to supervise the provision of food and clothes for an army.

The term is still used in Scottish law in connection with the confirmation of executors. The supervision of such matters was originally an ecclesiastical concern and when it became a secular one the name Commissary Court was retained. The Commissary Courts were amalgamated with the Sheriff Courts in 1876 but separate records are still kept, and the terms Commissary Office and Commissariat have been retained.