ˈportman Now local.
[f. port n.1, n.2 + man n.1 Cf. MDu. porter townsman, burgher.]
1. In OE. use, a citizen of a town, a burgess or burgher; spec. (after the Conquest) = capital or head portman, one of a select number of citizens, chosen to administer the affairs of a borough.
| c 1000 ælfric Saints' Lives xxxiii. 749 Se port-ᵹerefa and þa yldostan port-men. 10.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 333/11 Ciuis, ceasterᵹewara, oððe portman. c 1122 O.E. Chron. an. 1068 (Laud MS.) Eadgar æðeling com þa..to Eofer wic & þa port men [Cotton MS. burh menn] wiþ hine griðedon. [1200 Charter (Ipswich) in Gross Gild Merch. (1890) II. 118 Quum cito predicti xii. Capitales Portmenni fuerant iurati. 1254 Charter (Reading) ibid. 202 Quod predicti burgenses habeant gildhallam suam..in uilla de rading'..cum prato quod uocatur portmanebroc.] 1346 Litt. Red Bk. Bristol (1900) II. 26 Est ordinee qe nul portman del dit mestier soit receu en portmanrie por vendre ne achater des estraunges nul manere nouel drap. (Mod. transl. It is ordained that no portman of the said craft be received in the portmanry to sell to or buy any kind of new cloth from strangers.) 1527 in Fiddes Wolsey ii. (1726) 103, 24 gentilmen of the countrey, besides the bayliffs, portemen of the towne. 1681 Lond. Gaz. No. 1633/3 The Bayliffs, Portmen, and Common-Council of Your Town and Burrough of Ipswich. 1704 Ibid. No. 4076/3 The Mayor, Recorder, Portmen, Chief Burgesses, and Freemen, of the Corporation of Orford in the County of Suffolk. 1880 Rep. Commiss. Munic. Corpor. I. 88 The Corporation [of Orford] consists, as heretofore, of a mayor, eight portmen, and twelve capital burgesses. Ibid., One of the portmen is coroner. 1890 Gross Gild Merch. I. v. 62 The twelve portmen (i.e. the two bailiffs, four coroners, and six others) were elected and sworn ‘to take charge of, and to govern’ the town [Ipswich], to maintain its franchises, and to administer justice. |
2. A citizen or inhabitant of the Cinque Ports. (In med.L. portensis.)
| 1658 Phillips, Portmen, a name commonly given to the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 288 He [Edw. I] appointed William Leyburne captain of all the portmen and mariners of the king's dominions. [1294 B. de Cotton Hist. Anglic. (Rolls) 234 Capitaneus omnium portensium et omnium aliorum marinariorum.] |