Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Exchequer \Ex*cheq"uer\, n. [OE. escheker, OF. eichekier, fr.
   LL. scaccarium. See {Checker}, {Chess}, {Check}.]
   1. One of the superior courts of law; -- so called from a
      checkered cloth, which covers, or formerly covered, the
      table. [Eng.]

   Note: The exchequer was a court of law and equity. In the
         revenue department, it had jurisdiction over the
         proprietary rights of the crown against subjects; in
         the common law department, it administered justice in
         personal actions between subject and subject. A person
         proceeding against another in the revenue department
         was said to exchequer him. The judges of this court
         were one chief and four puisne barons, so styled. The
         Court of Exchequer Chamber sat as court of error in
         which the judgments of each of the superior courts of
         common law, in England, were subject to revision by the
         judges of the other two sitting collectively. Causes
         involving difficult questions of law were sometimes
         after argument, adjourned into this court from the
         other courts, for debate before judgment in the court
         below. Recent legislation in England (1880) has
         abolished the Court of Exchequer and the Court of
         Exchequer Chamber, as distinct tribunals, a single
         board of judiciary, the High Court of Justice, being
         established for the trial of all classes of civil
         cases. --Wharton.

   2. The department of state having charge of the collection
      and management of the royal revenue. [Eng.] Hence, the
      treasury; and, colloquially, pecuniary possessions in
      general; as, the company's exchequer is low.

   {Barons of the exchequer}. See under {Baron}.

   {Chancellor of the exchequer}. See under {Chancellor}.

   {Exchequer} {bills or bonds} (Eng.), bills of money, or
      promissory bills, issued from the exchequer by authority
      of Parliament; a species of paper currency emitted under
      the authority of the government, and bearing interest.