Writ'er, n.

(rĭt'er), n. [A-S. writere.]

1Sense 1. One who writes, or has written; a scribe; a clerk.

Out of Zebulon [came] they that handle the pen of the writer. Judg. v. 14.

2Sense 2. An author.

This pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile. Shak.

3Sense 3. A clerk in the East India Company service, who, after having served a certain number of years, becomes a factor. Simmonds.

Writer of the tallies (Eng. Law), an officer of the exchequer of England, who acts as clerk to the auditor of the receipt, who writes upon the tallies the whole letters of the tellers' bills. “The use of tallies in the exchequer has been abolished.” Wharton. — Writer to the signet, one of a class of lawyers in Scotland, nearly corresponding to an attorney-at-law in English and American practice; — called also clerk to the signet.

Writers to the signet derive their name from the circumstance that they were anciently clerks in the office of the Secretary of State, by whom writs were prepared and issued under the royal signet, or seal; and when the signet became employed in judicial proceedings, they obtained a monopoly of the privileges of acting as agents or attorneys before the Court of Session. Burrill.