Burgess (title)

The word was derived in Middle English and Middle Scots from the Old French word burgeis, simply meaning "an inhabitant of a town" (cf. burgeis or burges respectively). The Old French word burgeis is derived from bourg, meaning a market town or medieval village, itself derived from Late Latin burgus, meaning "fortress" or "wall". In effect, the reference was to the north-west European medieval and renaissance merchant class which tended to set up their storefronts along the outside of the city wall, where traffic through the gates was an advantage and safety in event of an attack was easily accessible. The right to seek shelter within a burg was known as the right of burgess. In Irish the name appears as , in Scottish Gaelic as , in Welsh as bwrdeis, Scots burges and Latin burgensis. The term was close in meaning to the Germanic term burgher, a formally defined class in medieval German cities (Middle Dutch burgher, Dutch burger and German Bürger). It is also linguistically close to the French term bourgeois, which evolved from burgeis. == Usage in England ==

was, among other things, "...One of the Burgesses of the University of Oxford," in 1899 In England, burgess meant an elected or unelected official of a borough, or the representative of one in the House of Commons of England. This use of the word burgess has since disappeared. Burgesses as freemen had the sole right to vote in municipal or parliamentary elections. However, in Britain and Ireland these special privileges were removed by the Reform Act 1832. ==Usage in Ireland==

The title of burgess also existed in some Irish cities and towns, dating back to the 12th-century Norman conquest of Ireland. English, Welsh and Norman colonists were offered the title of "burgess" in settlements of the Lordship of Ireland. Tenants on burgage land could freely lease or buy other land from their lord, sell their land or leave the property. A typical annual rent for a burgage was one shilling. They could also hold a "hundred court" separate from the manorial court. The title was also used in settlements established after the Plantations of the 16th–17th centuries. Under the 1841 Municipal Corporations Reform (Ireland) Act, those who occupied property with a rateable valuation of £10 or more could vote in corporation elections and had the title "burgess." == Usage in Scotland ==

Burgesses were originally freeman inhabitants of a city in which they owned land and who contributed to the running of the town and its taxation. The title of burgess was later restricted to merchants and craftsmen, so that only burgesses could enjoy the privileges of trading or practising a craft in the city through belonging to a guild (by holding a guild ticket) or were able to own companies trading in their guild's craft. One example are the Burgesses of Edinburgh. The burgesses' ancient exclusive trading rights through their Guilds were abolished in 1846. Thereafter a burgess became a title that gave social standing to the office and usually carried with it a role which involved charitable activities of their guild or livery company, as it does today. == Usage in American colonies ==

The term was also used in some of the Thirteen Colonies. In the Colony of Virginia, a "burgess" was a member of the legislative body, which was termed the "House of Burgesses". In Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the Burgess, or Chief Burgess, was the executive of many colonial-era municipalities until the turn of the 20th century, and persists in some places as the highest ranking magistrate of a municipality. == "Greensleeves" reference ==

The original version of the well-known English folk song "Greensleeves" includes the following: Thy purse and eke thy gay guilt knives, thy pincase gallant to the eye: No better wore the Burgesse wives, and yet thou wouldst not love me. This clearly implies that at the time when it was composed (late 16th to early 17th century) a burgess was proverbial as being able to provide his wife with beautiful and expensive clothes. ==See also==