compter

Etymology

noun

1. (obsolete) A counter (token used for keeping count).
   Let me see: every 'leven wether tods, every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to? […] I cannot do't without compters. 1623, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
2. (historical) A prison attached to a city court; a counter.
   Each sheriff had his own compter, which were both prisons and offices, administered by the respective secondaries. 2003, John Hamilton Baker, The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Oxford University Press, page 284