Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Star-chamber \Star"-cham`ber\, n. [So called (as conjectured by
   Blackstone) from being held in a room at the Exchequer where
   the chests containing certain Jewish comtracts and
   obligations called starrs (from the Heb. shetar, pron. shtar)
   were kept; or from the stars with which the ceiling is
   supposed to have been decorated.] (Eng. Hist.)
   An ancient high court exercising jurisdiction in certain
   cases, mainly criminal, which sat without the intervention of
   a jury. It consisted of the king's council, or of the privy
   council only with the addition of certain judges. It could
   proceed on mere rumor or examine witnesses; it could apply
   torture. It was abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641.
   --Encyc. Brit.