common hall
1. The hall in which a corporation meets; the hall of a guild or city company; a town-hall. b. A general meeting of the Corporation; e.g. of the Common Council of London.
| c 1302 Pol. Songs (1839) 188 The webbes ant the fullaris..makeden huere consail in huere commune halle. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccli. 322 Fallyng doune of a steyr as they come oute of theyr comyn halle. 1640 Ord. Ho. Com. in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 141 A Letter..to the Lord Mayor of London, to desire him to call a Common-Hall. 1727 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 16 A Common Hall or Generall Assembly of the Mayor, Baylives and Burgesses. 1772 Ann. Reg. 145/2 Before the common-hall was over, Mr. Sheriff Wilkes declared there should be no poll published. 1812 Examiner 5 Oct. 636/1 On Tuesday a Common Hall was held for the election of Lord Mayor. |
2. In wider sense: see hall. (By Tindale used to translate Gr. πραιτώριον.)
| 1526 Tindale Matt. xxvii. 27 Then the soudeours of the debite toke Iesus vnto the comen hall [1611 common hall; Wyclif mote halle]. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. v. 3 And forth he comes into the commune hall. 1645 G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 II. 88 But speake my knowledge, though it should displase The common-Hall..Of Ignorance. 1695 Bp. Patrick Comm. Gen. xxxiv. 24 (T.) All the citizens, who were met together in the common-hall, or place of publick assemblies. |