▪ I. burgess, n.
(ˈbɜːdʒɪs)
Forms: 3–5 burgeis, -eys, borgeis, -eys, -es, 3–7 burges, (4 burgas(e, buries, -eys, ? boryeis), 4–5 bourgeis, -eys, (burias, -jase, -iays, 5 burgens, bergeys), 5–6 burgeois(e, 5– burgess. In ME. the pl. was generally the same as the sing., as still in F. bourgeois.
[ME. burgeis, a. OF. burgeis:—late L. burgēnsis: see bourgeois.]
1. An inhabitant of a borough; strictly, one possessing full municipal rights; a citizen, freeman of a borough.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 168 Hit is beggares rihte uorte beren bagge on bac {revsc} & burgeises for to beren purses. 1297 R. Glouc. 540 The borgeis anon The ȝates made aȝen him. c 1340 Ayenb. 162 Ane yongne boryeis and ane newene kniȝt..Þe borgeys wylneþ to chapfari. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 444 At Perigot ich was y-bore {revsc} a borgeys dude me gete. c 1420 Sir Amadace xxv, Mony a riche burias. c 1532 Ld. Berners Huon 560 He logyd in a notable burgesse howse. 1571 Jrnls. Ho. Commons I. 84 The Bill for the Validity of Burgesses non resiant. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 243 Every Burgess at age..hath power to trade, and bear office, in the City. 1727 Swift Poison. E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 150 All persons of honour, lords spiritual and temporal, gentry, burgesses and commonalty. 1862 Municip. Corp. Act 45–6 Vict. l. §7 In this Act Burgess includes Citizen. 1876 Grant Burgh. Sch. Scot. ii. ix. 288 In every burgh of Scotland, schools have been founded for instructing the children of Burgesses. |
b. spec. One elected to represent his fellow-citizens in parliament; the member of parliament for a borough, corporate town, or university. Now only technical and
Hist. The same term was used in some of the American colonies (as Virginia) to denote the representatives sent by the towns to the legislative body, which was called the ‘House of Burgesses’.
| 1472 J. Paston in Lett. 701 III. 55 Ther be a doseyn townys in Inglond that chesse no bergeys, whyche ought to do. 1554 Jrnls. Ho. Commons I. 29 Examine the case of Mr. Foster, Burgess elect. 1648 Art. Peace xvii. in Milton's Wks. (1851) II, The said Citizens..shall be enabled..to choose and return Burgesses into the same Parliament. 1697 Blair in Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 18 In Elections of Burgesses for the General Assembly, or in the choosing a speaker for the House of Burgesses. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3840/1 One of the Burgesses for the University. 1863 H. Cox Instit. i. iii. 13 Writs addressed..to cities and boroughs for sending burgesses. |
† 2. spec. A magistrate or member of the governing body of a town. Used as an official title (with varying signification) in certain English boroughs before the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 16060 Pilat satt, and him a-butte Þe burges [v.r. burgeises] o þe tun. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 113/1 The burgeyses that were in their gownes and mantellis..called their seruantes. 1591 Lambarde Arch. (1635) 38 Sheriffes, Coroners, Hundreders, Burgesses, Serjeants, and Beadles, have their Courts within every their particular limits. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3) Burgesse, a head man of a towne. 1766 Entick London IV. 401 There are also 16 burgesses and their assistants, whose office..resembles that of an alderman's deputy in London. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 205 Belfast..is..governed by a Sovereign and 12 Burgesses. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 616 He was welcomed at the North Gate [of Belfast, in 1690] by the magistrates and burgesses in their robes of office. |
† 3. transf. and
fig. Said of a man or animal: Freeman, free denizen (
of).
Obs.| 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 368 No other companions then the wild burgesses of the forrest. 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Country (L.) Twenty years have I lived A burgess of the sea. c 1630 in Risdon Surv. Devon §308 (1810) 315 The deer securely stood, And walk'd a burgess of the wood. |
4. a. attrib.| 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 207/2 An alphabetical list, to be called ‘The Burgess List’. Ibid. 197/2 The watchword of the burgess population. 1881 Macgregor Hist. Glasgow xi. 97 The burgess class was subdivided into merchants and craftsmen. |
b. Comb., as
† burgess-man,
burgess-wife; also
burgess-roll, the register or official list of burgesses in a borough;
† burgess-ticket, a certificate of burgess-ship:
† burgess-town (see
quot.).
| 1540 Sir W. Eure in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 15 A king, a bushop, a *burges man, armed in harness. |
| 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 208/1 To cause the *burgess-roll to be made out in alphabetical lists of the burgesses. |
| 1657 S. Colvil Whig's Supplic. (1751) 56 Beside her loss of *burgess ticket. |
| 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece vi. 448 [It] was reckoned one of the..*Burgess-Towns of the Athenians. |
| 1483 Caxton Cato B vij, A good *bourgeys wyf and wel beloued of her husbond. c 1550 Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 192 With burges wifes they led their liues. |
▪ II. ˈburgess, v. Sc. [f. prec.] To make a burgess, to admit to the freedom of a borough or burgh. Also ludicrously applied to rough practices symbolizing this. (See Jamieson.)