headborough
(ˈhɛdˌbʌrə)
Forms: 5 -borwe, 5–7 -borow, 6–7 -borowe, -boroughe, 7 -burrowe, -burrough, 8 -bourg, 6– -borough.
Originally, the head of a friðborh, tithing, or frank-pledge (see borrow n. 3); afterwards a parish officer identical in functions with the petty constable; = borrowhead, borsholder, tithingman.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 231/2 Heed borow (K., H. hed⁓borwe), plegius capitalis. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 10 Constables, hede borowes, and katers. 1536 Act 28 Hen. VIII, c. 10 Euery..counstable, hedborowe, thyrd⁓boroughe, borsolder, and euery other lay officer. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. Induct. i. 11, I must go fetch the Head⁓borough. Beg. Third, or fourth, or fift Borough, Ile answere him by Law. 1642 Rogers Naaman 228 Oh! yee Headburrowes, and Officers of Townes, let this truth of God convince yee. 1722 De Foe Plague (1884) 301 There died six and forty Constables and Headboroughs. 1766 Entick London IV. 389 The officers stand thus; 6 church-wardens..3 headboroughs. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xi. III. 11 The Whig theory is..that the right of a king is divine in no other sense than that in which the right of a..judge, of a juryman, of a mayor, of a headborough, is divine. |
b. transf. An official holding a similar position in foreign countries.
| 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. iv. 47 The head⁓borough of the Citie (whom we call the Mayour). 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 152 Two other headboroughs, one of Dantzick, and the other of Elburg. 1843 Borrow Bible in Spain xlix. (1872) 283, I was visited by various alguazils, accompanied by a kind of headborough who made a small seizure of Testaments and Gypsy Gospels. |