Esquire Bedell

1815 engraving (from Rudolf Ackermann's History of the University of Cambridge) of an Esquire Bedell (left) and a Yeoman Bedell (right).

An Esquire Bedell is a junior ceremonial officer of a university, usually with official duties relating to the conduct of ceremonies for the conferment of degrees. The word is closely related to the archaic bedel and modern English beadle.