Hist. [f. COM- + BURGESS, after med.L. comburgensis, or F. combourgeois (16th c. in Littré).]
1. A fellow-burgess, fellow-citizen or freeman of a borough.
1517. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 17. The complaint made … by the Maior and yor comburgesses of yor towne of Oxford.
1565. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 37. Comburgesses and Commonalty.
1577–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), II. 446. Such magistrates … as neither are comburgesses nor apt to discharge themselves of such offices.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj. (Chalmerl. Air), 148. All and sundrie zour comburgesses [Lat. omnes comburgenses vestros], dwelling within zour burgh.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xx. 424. The members were generally ‘co-citizens’ or ‘comburgesses.’
† 2. In certain English boroughs (before the Municipal Reform Act, 1835), used as the title of municipal magistrates, chosen by and from among their fellow-burgesses, and associated with the alderman.
In some cases, as at Stamford, the Alderman and his Comburgesses received by later charter the style of Mayor and Aldermen.
1646. R. Butcher, Stamford, iv. Edward the 4th … by his charter directed to George Chapman the first incorporate alderman, and others both of the upper and lower Bench, then called the Comburgesses and Capitall-Burgesses.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3175/3. The Association of the Alderman, Burgesses in Parliament, Comburgesses, Gentlemen, Free-Burgesses and other Inhabitants of the Borough of Grantham.
1835. Rep. Commiss. Munic. Corp., App. iii. 1673. Pontefract, King Richard 3, by a charter … ordains that the Mayor and burgesses … yearly may amongst the same burgesses in the Moot Hall, choose out of themselves 13 Comburgesses … one of which burgesses is to be chosen for the Mayor for one whole year. Ibid., App. iv. 2241. Grantham, The Comburgesses are elected for life by the Alderman’s Court from the second twelve, who alone are eligible.
