burgessn.1
/ˈbəːdʒᵻs/, U.S. /ˈbərdʒəs/ 1.
a. An inhabitant or resident of a borough, esp. of a town; a citizen. Now chiefly historical or literary.Frequently used more narrowly to denote a person possessing the full municipal rights to which inhabitants or residents of a borough fulfilling certain criteria are entitled, or on whom such rights have been conferred, or a person possessing the freedom of a borough. Even when used in a more general sense the word usually suggests relatively high status or respectability. Cf. burgher n.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > esp. as having civic rights
burgess?c1225
citizena1325
commoner1384
citinerc1450
in-burgess1479
burgher?1555
bourgeoisie1593
bourgeois1604
burgessdom1661
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 129 Hit is beggilde richte to beore bagge onbacke. burgeise to beore purs.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 11188 Þe borgeis anon Þe ȝates made aȝen him.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 162 Ane yongne boryeis and ane newene kniȝt... Þe borgeys wylneþ to chapfari.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 444 At Perigot ich was y-bore a borgeys dude me gete.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 12492 (MED) Was þar wonnand in þat wik þat hight iosep, a burges rik.
1440 in Hull Bench Bk. 3 f. 14v Ye said Burgesses and thair heires..shall have ii markette days wekely withyn the Burgh of Kyngeston upon Hull.
c1475 (a1400) Sir Amadace (Taylor) in J. Robson Three Early Eng. Metrical Romances (1842) 37 Mony a riche burias.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors i. sig. A6v Let all the lordes and burgesses be bownd to be present at euery sermon.
1576 T. Hill Moste Pleasaunte Arte Interpretacion of Dreames (new ed.) sig. I.i Others write that hee died of a greate anger whiche he toke agaynst a Burgeys of that Cittye.
1615 J. Stephens Ess. & Characters (new ed.) 298 Other Poems he admits, as goodfellowes take Tobacco, or ignorant Burgesses giue a voyce, for company sake.
1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 243 Every Burgess at age..hath power to trade, and bear office, in the City.
1716 A. Pope Full Acct. E. Curll 4 All Persons of Honour, Lords Spiritual and Temporal, Gentry, Burgesses, and Commonalty.
1780 (title) To the virtuous free independent patriotic band of burgesses of Newcastle.
1839 Sydney Standard 7 Jan. 2/4 We would invest every man..with the privileges of a Burgess, provided he came free, and has continued free in the colony.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iv. 476 The burgesses of Wigan assured their sovereign that they would defend him against [etc.].
1862 Municip. Corp. Act 45–6 Vict. l. §7 In this Act Burgess includes Citizen.
1876 J. Grant Hist. Burgh Schools Scotl. ii. ix. 288 In every burgh of Scotland, schools have been founded for instructing the children of Burgesses.
1902 University Stud. (Univ. Nebraska) 3 340 In 1789 Jean-Sylvain Bailly was one of the most distinguished of the conservative burgesses of Paris.
1933 Weekly Scotsman 14 Oct. 1 (heading) Hawick's new burgesses. Ceremony of conferring the freedom.
1992 D. Kemp Pleasures & Treasures Brit. 246 When Warwick was rebuilt after the fire, the buildings reflected the power of the wealthy burgesses.
2003 Oxoniensia 67 38 Many larger towns such as Leicester and Coventry continued to have fields and commons apportioned in the usual way between different burgesses.
b. spec. A person elected to represent fellow citizens in a deliberative or legislative body. Now historical.Formerly commonly used in Britain to denote a member of Parliament for a borough, corporate town, or university, and in some British colonies in North America to denote the representatives sent by the towns to the legislative body, which in some cases was called the House of Burgesses.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > governing or legislative body of a nation or community > English or British parliament > [noun] > Member of Parliament > other types of member
burgessc1425
private member1606
recruiter1648
university member1774
unofficial member1822
labour member1871
Labour-Liberal1890
service member1890
front-bencher1907
back-bencher1910
shire-member1910
c1425 in Norfolk Archaeol. (1864) 6 226 Ȝe shal wel & truli leie þe..expensis for þe burgeysis of þe parlement of þis town.
1472 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 579 Ther be a doseyn townys in Inglond that chesse no borgeys whyche ought to do.
1553 Orig. Jrnls. House of Commons 27 Oct. 1 f. 81 Examine the case of Mr. Foster burgess elect.
1619 in Jrnls. House of Burgesses Virginia (1915) 3 Sir George Yeardley..having sent his summons all over the Countrey, as well to invite those of the Counsell of State that were absente as also for the Election of Burgesses there were chosen and appeared, [etc.].
1635 J. Lechmere Relection Conf. Reall Presence 5 With M. Featly came one M. Iohn Porie, who had beene a burgeois (as it was said) in the firste Parlament, in King Iames his time.
1649 Articles of Peace with Irish Rebels 15 The said Citizens..shall be enabled..to chuse and returne Burgesses into the same Parliament.
1702 London Gaz. No. 3840/1 One of the Burgesses for the University.
1768 G. Wythe Let. 18 July in John Norton & Sons (1968) 59 You will oblige me by sending a copper plate, with the arms of Virginia neatly engraved and some impressions of them to be pasted on the books belonging to the house of burgesses.
a1790 B. Franklin Autobiogr. (1922) 173 The citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them in Assembly.
1832 J. P. Kennedy Swallow Barn I. xiv. 145 He was a very authoritative man..in the province; belonged frequently to the House of Burgesses; and was, more than once, in the privy council.
1863 H. Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. i. iii. 13 Writs addressed..to cities and boroughs for sending burgesses.
1948 J. C. Miller Triumph of Freedom iii. 40 The Virginia House of Burgesses invited the absconded governor to return to Williamsburg and resume the exercise of his duties.
1994 P. Roberts in A. Fletcher & P. Roberts Relig., Culture & Society Early Mod. Brit. ii. 49 Tilney sat in parliament in 1572 as burgess for Gatton.
2. Any of various officials exercising judicial or executive authority in a town or borough. Now chiefly historical.Used as an official title, with varying precise signification, in certain English boroughs before the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. Also used of officials exercising comparable authority in other jurisdictions, notably parts of North America; it remains in use in parts of Connecticut.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun] > member of local government council > town-councillor
portman1346–7
commoner1384
burgessc1390
common-councilmana1637
councilman1659
corporator1670
gownsman1675
counsel-house-man1697
town councillor1731
c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. ii. l. 130 (MED) Fals..and Fauuel..lette sompne alle men..To Arayen hem redi, Boþe Burgeys and Schirreues, To weende with hem to westmunster to Witnesse þe deede.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 16060 Pilat satt, and him a-butte þe burges [Gött. burgeises] o þe tun.
1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. cxiij/1 The burgeyses that were in their gownes and mantellis..called theyr seruantes.
1559 in R. W. Greaves 1st Ledger Bk. of High Wycombe (1956) 82/3 To gather upp the seide money and to be accomptant for the same..and to be accomptant to the seide mayor and Burgesses.
a1601 W. Lambarde Archion (1635) 46 Sheriffes, Coroners, Hundreds, Burghesses, Serieants, and Beadles have their Courts within every their particular limits.
1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Burgesse, a head man of a towne.
1683 London Gaz. No. 1866/4 The Mayor, Aldermen, Bayliff, Capital Burgesses, and Commonalty of..Waymouth.
a1733 H. Bourne Hist. Newcastle (1736) xiii. 159 The Right and Title of the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle upon Tyne, to the Soil..of the River of Tyne.
1764 T. Barton Conduct of Paxton-men 29 The Deposition of one Thomas Moore, who being sworn on the Holy Evangelists, before the chief Burgess of Lancaster [in Pennsylvania], has declar'd, that [etc.].
1766 J. Entick Surv. London in New Hist. London IV. 401 There are also 16 burgesses and their assistants, whose office..resembles that of an alderman's deputy in London.
1812 G. A. Thompson Geogr. & Hist. Dict. Amer. & W. Indies I. 378/2 Chester, a borough and post-town in Pennsylvania..is governed by two burgesses, a constable, a town-clerk, and three assistants.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xvi. 616 He was welcomed at the North Gate [of Belfast, in 1690] by the magistrates and burgesses in their robes of office.
1899 Wrexham Advertiser, & N. Wales News 2 Dec. 6/5 (headline) The Mayor and burgesses of Wrexham at church.
1933 R. G. Stone Hezekiah Niles as Economist 39 During his residence in Wilmington, the town was governed by thirteen officers, two Burgesses, six assistants, a high constable, a treasurer, an assessor, a town clerk, and a petit constable.
2006 Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican-American (Nexis) 15 Sept. A committee..suggested to the Board of Mayor and Burgesses that the borough consider either building a new intermediate school for grades five and six, or a new high school.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > [noun]
maneOE
wonnera1340
dwellera1382
livera1382
indweller1382
resiant1405
inhabitor1413
inhabitera1425
tenanta1425
abider1440
citizenc1450
inhabitant1462
resident1463
denizen1474
inhabitator?a1475
mansionarya1475
habitant1490
incolera1513
occupier?1542
land-occupier1576
residentiary1581
burgessa1586
incolant1596
consistorian1599
ledger1600
resider1632
residenter1644
habitator1646
endwellera1649
incolary1652
incolist1657
insetter1712
houser1871
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) ii. xviii. sig. Aa5v No other companions then the wild burgesses of the forrest.
a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Custome of Countrey ii. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Aa4/1 Twenty yeares I have liv'd A Burgesse of the Sea.
1649 R. Baron Apol. for Paris 11 All Pies and Parrots shall be taught that note, which the wild Burgesses of the Woods shall learne of them.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
ΚΠ
1433 Petition in Rotuli Parl. (1767–77) IV. 479/2 The rentall rolle, and all Burgeis rolles..been putte and kepte in the cofre.
a1450 in F. W. Willmore Hist. Walsall (1887) 166 (MED) That if eny of the said Burgesses refuse the ordenaunce of the article next above wrytten, that then he or they so refusyng to forfett to the Burges Box, for his obstinacy, vi s.
1678 Case Edward Lloyd Esq. (single sheet) The Burgess Fees to be Leavied and gathered.
1836 Penny Cycl. V. 207/2 An alphabetical list, to be called ‘The Burgess List’.
1881 G. MacGregor Hist. Glasgow xi. 97 The burgess class was subdivided into merchants and craftsmen.
1933 C. Stephenson Borough & Town iv. 96 Careful study of the problem shows that burgage tenure was inseparable from burgess status.
2001 R. Frame in B. Harvey 12th & 13th Cent. i. 51 Castle building, the creation of sub-tenures, the formation of parishes, the marking out of burgess settlements, all signalled a shift towards more settled and regular forms of control and exploitation.
C2. Appositive, as burgess man, burgess woman, etc.
ΚΠ
1464 Petition in Rotuli Parl. (1767–77) V. 515/2 Maire, Baillifs, Burgeismen and Communalte.
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 216 A sely alde burges man of the age of ane hundreth ȝeris.
1566 Actis & Constit. Scotl. sig. lxxvii Ane Clerk, and twa Burges men send ouer sey to the king of Romanis.
1603 Thre Prestis of Peblis (Charteris) (1920) 13 Into the hal amang the Burges men; With him ane Clark with ink paper and pen.
1736 J. M'Ure View City of Glasgow Pref. A Burgess Gentleman, as above described, will be in the Eye of a Thinking Man as great a Character, as [etc.].
1829 P. F. Tytler Hist. Scotl. III. iii. 273 The burgess yeoman of inferior rank, possessing property to the extent of twenty pounds.
1886 Daily News 6 Feb. 5/2 A French version of Juliet's nurse..with all the absurdities of the decent burgess woman for complement of her character.
1906 Expositor July 37 The Jews..did not possess any rights as burgess-citizens.
1968 G. Mathew Court Richard II 189 The classic examples of a strong-minded burgess woman are the Wife of Bath in fiction and Margerie Kempe in fact.
2009 N. McIlvenna Very Mutinous People ii. v. 107 Quakers comprised at least four of the five burgessmen from Perquimans precinct.
C3.
burgess oath n. now historical an oath sworn by a person on admission to the position of burgess.In Scotland in 1747, the Secession church split on the issue of the compatibility of the oath with scriptural principles (cf. Antiburgher n.).
ΚΠ
1638 H. Adamson Muses Threnodie vi. 74 King James the Sixth..gave his Burges oath, and did inrole With his own hand within the Burges scrole And Gildrie Book his deare and worthie Name.
1700 J. B. Let. from Citizen of Glasgow to his Friend at Edinb. 9 The Obligations that ly upon us by our Burges-Oaths.
1755 Scots Mag. Aug. 409/2 This gentleman..was zealous against the burgess-oath.
1835 1st Rep. Commissioners Munic. Corporations Eng. & Wales App. iv. 2109 in Parl. Papers (H.C. 116) XXV. 1 The burgesses [of Bedford]..are still required to promise, in their Burgess Oath, that they ‘will utterly forsake and eschew for ever the usurped power and unlawful jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, here most justly abolished.’
1897 Sc. Antiquary 11 176 The congregation originated in 1747, the year when the Secession was divided by the Burgess Oath controversy into two Synods, Burgher and Anti-burgher.
1986 R. G. Thorne House of Commons 1790–1820 I. 433/2 He alleged that 64 freeholder votes were inadmissible, because freeholders could not take the burgess oath.
burgess roll n. now chiefly historical the register or official list of burgesses in a borough or other corporation.
ΚΠ
1433Burgeis rolles [see Compounds 1].
a1450 in F. W. Willmore Hist. Walsall (1887) 166 (MED) The same Burgesses to be regestred and set in the newe Burgess Rolle for evr.
1638 Minute Bk. Corporation Clonmel 22 Oct. (2006) 242 He is..admitted and sworne to be enrolled and called in the burgesse Roll of this Corporacon as a ffree burgess.
1773 Petition of John Sutherland of Wester 10 They required Harpsdale instantly to produce the said leet, court-books, and burgess-roll.
1836 Penny Cycl. V. 208/1 To cause the burgess-roll to be made out in alphabetical lists of the burgesses.
1937 W. R. Scott Adam Smith as Student & Professor i. i. 10 Simson was admitted the same day [in 1716], his name preceding that of the Duke of Argyle on the burgess roll.
1946 R. L. Green Andrew Lang xv. 202 His name was entered on the burgess roll where Sir Walter Scott's was before him.
2010 Carmarthen Jrnl. (Nexis) 13 Oct. 3 As part of the tradition, the Burgess Roll [of Laugharne Corporation] was called, which includes the names of more than 500 men from the area.
burgess ticket n. Scottish a certificate attesting that a person is a burgess of a particular corporation.
ΚΠ
1644 S. Rutherford Due Right of Presbyteries 220 The Burgesse ticket whereby a man hath right to all the citie priviledges may remaine, when the man for some crime committed against the citie hath lost all his citie priviledges and is not now a free citizen.
1657 S. Colvil Mock Poem (1751) 56 Beside her loss of burgess ticket.
1723 W. Meston Knight i. 11 In his broad Hat..The League and Covenant together He tied, and under Hat-band sticked, And wore them like a Burgess-ticket.
1820 Caledonian Mercury 29 Apr. The Council having previously resolved to admit Lord Gillies to the freedom of the burgh [of Stirling], his burgess ticket was presented to his Lordship by Provost Buchan.
1945 Scotsman 28 June 3 (caption) Provost Dunmore presenting the Duke of Hamilton with a casket containing the Burgess ticket when he and Group Captain D. F. McIntyre..received the freedom of Prestwick.
2007 Evening News (Edinburgh) (Nexis) 30 June 16 He became the first foreign monarch to be given the freedom of the city of Edinburgh when he was presented with a Burgess Ticket in a silver gilt casket.
burgess-town n. now historical and rare a town of sufficient size or importance to have burgesses (in various senses).
ΚΠ
1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos vii. sig. U.ivv Togither [come] Amyterna manred strong, & burgeis townes, And all Mutuska strength.
1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 22 Sixeteene moath-eaten burgesse townes.
1682 G. Wheler Journey into Greece vi. 448 [It] was reckoned one of the..Burgess-Towns of the Athenians.
1721 Lay-man's Plain Remarks 29 The Statute of Omri..banished those, whom they had before expos'd to Want and Misery, from Cities and Burgess Towns.
1886 W. P. Dickson tr. T. Mommsen Provinces Rom. Empire I. 68 In the Tarraconensis the burgess-towns are found predominantly on the coast.
1955 I. Bell in T. Parry Hist. Welsh Lit. 128 Every burgess-town of this kind received special privileges in the matter of trade and commerce.
burgess wife n. now rare the wife of a burgess.
ΚΠ
a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 6864 Thise burgeis wyues..Riche ben and eke plesyng.
?1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton i. sig. Bvii A good bourgeys wyf and wel beloued of her husbond.
c1550 in J. G. Dalyell Scotish Poems 16th Cent. (1801) II. 192 With burges wifes they led their liues.
1771 Edinb. Almanack 134 The persons intitled to be admitted..are old men and women, burgesses, burgess wives, or children of burgesses, not under the age of 50 years, and single.
1868 R. Browning Ring & Bk. II. iv. 7 Violante, the old innocent burgess-wife.
1906 M. Bateson Borough Customs II. p. cxii Rules of a general kind, applied not specially to the burgess wife who traded as a merchant, but to all burgess wives.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
Burgessn.2
/ˈbəːdʒᵻs/, U.S. /ˈbərdʒəs/ Chiefly Palaeontology.
1. Burgess Shale n. A mudstone formation in the Rocky Mountains of western Canada, containing a wide range of well-preserved invertebrate fossils (including those of soft-bodied animals) from the Cambrian period. Also attributive, as Burgess Shale fauna, Burgess Shale fossil, etc.Many of the animal forms represented in the Burgess Shale are unlike any animals known from later periods.
ΚΠ
1911 C. D. Walcott Cambrian Geol. & Paleontol. II in Smithsonian Misc. Coll. 57 No. 2. 51 Burgess Shale..this name is proposed as a geographic name for a shale to which the term of Ogygopsis shale was given in 1908.
1912 Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 1911–2 B. 29 249 A fauna like that obtained from the Burgess Shale deposits of British Columbia.
1977 J. W. Valentine in A. Hallam Patterns of Evol. ii. 32 The composition of the Burgess Shale fauna (total about 120 genera) is as follows: arthropods, excluding trilobites 25.5%; [etc.].
1989 S. J. Gould Wonderful Life (1991) 13 The most precious and important of all fossil localities—the Burgess Shale of British Columbia.
2012 P. Selden & J. Nudds Evol. Fossil Ecosystems ii. 24 It is significant that the Burgess Shale fossils are always found at the foot of this submarine cliff.
2. attributive. Of or relating to the Burgess Shale; esp. designating organisms represented in, or fossils from, the Burgess Shale.
ΚΠ
1916 Sci. Monthly Oct. 325/1 The worms, including swimming and burrowing annulates, are represented in the Burgess fauna by a very large number of specimens.
1924 C. Schuchert in L. V. Pirsson & C. Schuchert Textbk. Geol. (ed. 2) II. 202 Nearly all of the Burgess forms were devoid of calcareous external skeletons.
1981 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 295 631 The arrangement of the reflective areas are similar to those in other Burgess fossils possessing undoubted eyes, such as Opabinia.
1993 Paleobiology 19 399/1 Gould's proposal is..that Burgess animals are quite variable in the characters that today are quite stable and define higher-level taxa.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
† burgessv.
Originally and chiefly Scottish. Obsolete.
transitive. To make (a person) the object of a ceremony in recognition (actual or mocking) of his having been made a burgess. Later also (occasionally): to make a burgess, to admit to the freedom of a borough or burgh.
ΚΠ
1664 Stirling Common Good f. 24b For 8 pyntis seck at burgessing Lord Hary Gordon.
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. II. Additions and Corrections at Bejan This ceremony is performed in Edinburgh on the King's birth-day. The patient is thereby said, by the mob, to be burgessed, or made a burgess.
1834 Times 19 Sept. 2/2 Certain we are that Lord Eldon towards the close of his official career would have been cheered and feasted, addressed and burgessed, as no Chancellor has been yet.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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